Women in IT

It is encouraging that women are becoming increasingly aware of themselves, their competencies, and skills. We are mostly abandoning the old paradigm that girls tend toward the humanities. And even if we were raised in it, the contemporary availability of knowledge, examples from other countries, and the successes of women themselves have strongly changed our perspective. The topic is important and worth highlighting. It is not about quotas, but about making sure that the industry is certainly open to gender diversity. Early stereotypes, the weight of imposter syndrome deepening those statistics, and other barriers that women face on a daily basis in the workplace, are nevertheless not stopping them from entering the technology sector. On the contrary — the future of women in the mentioned sector looks increasingly optimistic. What does women's employment in IT look like today? What deserves recognition?

How many women are in IT?

The statistics are not clear-cut. Globally, it is said that about 30% of IT workers are women. In Poland, some reports show that 15.5% to 20% of IT workers are women (HRS-IT), others say it is decidedly closer to 15% (EUROSTAT).  So there is still space for women in this industry. But Poland doesn't look so great in these statistics. However, it is worth looking at the problem more broadly. If we add to these statistics that Poland leads the European Union in the number of female graduates in STEM fields per thousand residents (data from Eurostat for 2013–2019), the resulting picture seems quite good. 320,000 new potential specialists are about to enter the market. If we add women who intend to change careers and enter IT, we have a chance in a few years to approach global trends.

Career Switching.

The statistics related to career switching are as follows.  Almost 50% of women entering IT have a different profession and experience from another industry. By comparison, only 30% of men enter IT after a career change. It is clear that women are searching for their place and experimenting more and more willingly with employment.

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If they are already in the industry, what do they do?

Research shows that half of women working in IT are involved in coding. Women most often specialize in Backend (15%) and Frontend and Fullstack (5.4%). When asked about technologies, they frequently point to SQL (30%), JavaScript (20%), HTML and CSS (19.3%), Java (15%). However, there is a group of women who work in IT without programming. In that case, women tend to choose Testing (18.6%), Project Management (16%), Business Analysis (11.1%), and UX (9.3%) (data from No Fluff Jobs).

Industry Inclusivity or Exclusivity? 

Alicja Popiołkiewicz, People and Culture Manager at JellyTech, observes: "The world we live in needs computer engineers in every industry, from medicine, through finance, to maritime transport planning. That is why we can no longer afford the absence of women in technology, science, and engineering professions. Thanks to growing awareness and the emphasis on the importance of diverse teams, the competitiveness and innovation of enterprises is growing. Women offer a different way of thinking than men. Which of course doesn't mean better or worse, but gender-diverse teams offer more innovative solutions. Involving women in the technology sector thus provides the foundation for competitive advantage by building further innovation in one's field. Let us also look at the problem-solving aspect. Regardless of gender, women and men find solutions to problems, however developing out-of-the-box solutions requires different perspectives and fresh ideas. This offers better problem-solving, and as a result, better outcomes. Although there is still a lot ahead of us, even today we can observe good practices in the technology industry that build a culture of inclusivity, understanding, and supporting women. Creating a workplace where women see real opportunities for advancement, encouraging women to develop competencies in STEM fields, and building inspiration for today's and future leaders."

Women at JellyTech

Well, we talk about women in the industry, but what does it look like at our place 🙃?

1. At JellyTech, almost 50% of employees are women. Among 100% of technical employees, as many as 27% are women (programmers, testers, and analysts).  So as JellyTech we are catching up to global trends!
2. At the head of the company are 3 owners, one of whom is a woman.
3. At the recently held Javeloper2022 and Yava!Conf conferences, our programmer Karolina was the only woman among the presenting developers.
4. We work with a fantastic physicist-scientist who has conducted research at numerous universities abroad, including in Mallorca, in Barbarossa, and currently in Berlin at the Max Planck Institute.

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We always warmly invite more wonderful specialists to join us.  Current job postings can be found in the careers tab: https://www.jellytech.com.pl/oferty-pracy

You can also always write to Alicja Popiołkiewicz (our People and Culture Manager), she will be happy to tell you what it's like to work with us and what you can expect 😉 Ali's email is: apopiolkiewicz@jellytech.com.pl

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So ladies — keyboards at the ready! Screens positioned! Environments set up! Let's get to work 😉

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