Portugal leads way for women in tech: New study

Analysis from online recruitment platform, Honeypot, finds eight countries are beating the odds to offer more equitable pay for women working in IT. But female representation remains below 30%.

Ruth Holmes

17 April 2018

With large UK companies filing their first gender pay gap reports required by law and just one in three reporting a majority of women among top earners, Honeypot’s report offers evidence to further discussion about what companies can do to ensure more equal workplaces and inclusive career paths.The study finds that while women in tech are closing the gender pay gap in some countries, the percentage of women in tech remains below a third across the 41 OECD and EU countries in the study.

Top 10 countries for that offer the best opportunity for women in tech:

^{(Reproduced with permission from Honeypot , which has the full methodology and results)}

Portugal
United States
Latvia
Finland
France
United Kingdom
Estonia
Spain
Cyprus

Poland, Lithuania, Greece, the Slovak Republic and Luxumbourg are furthest off the average gender pay gap, at between 25.5% and 19% respectively, and take up the bottom five places of the 41 countries.The UK is placed seventh in Honeypot’s survey when factors like the overall pay gap is compared with the gender pay gap in the technology sector.The gender pay gap in the UK tech sector is 2.5% less than that for the wider workforce. However, the UK lags some way behind the leaders, Portugal, where the gap is 7.26% smaller.

Study ‘exposes gender imbalance in the IT sector’

Explaining the importance of the insights, Emma Tracey, co-founder at Honeypot commented: “Gender parity in the workplace is not just an ethical or moral issue, but also an economic one. As tech recruitment specialists, we are often confronted with the gender imbalances of the industry, which are fully exposed in this study."The technology industry is likely to form the core economic platform in the future, and it's clear how desperately we need to address the issue of gender inequality in the IT field. We hope that this index helps to open the eyes of those at the top of the industry and galvanize them into making positive changes, not only for the sake of parity, but for the entire global economy.“The results reveal the countries which have the most to offer women looking to progress in the tech industry, with Portugal, the United States and Latvia highlighted as the top three nations that have taken positive steps towards gender parity in the technology field in terms of fairer wages. However, with the proportion of female tech workers remaining under 30% across the board, we hope that this study will enrich the conversation concerning equality in this industry and inspire more women to seek out opportunities in tech."

Other news and features from Relocate Global:

Top 10 countries for female career progression

Honeypot’s analysis also looked at the top ten countries for female career progression, regarded as one of the key elements of closing the gender pay gap.Using figures from the World Economic Forum, the study ranked the 41 countries on progression and promotional opportunities for women.

Top 10 countries for percentage of women in senior management

^{(Reproduced with permission from Honeypot , which has the full methodology and results)}

Latvia (44.4%)
United States (43.5%)
Hungary (40.5%)
New Zealand (40.1%)
Poland (40.1%)
Lithuania (39.8%)
Sweden (39.4%)
Iceland (38.3%)
Slovenia (37.5%)
Bulgaria (36.7%)

Bottom 10 countries for percentage of women in senior management

South Korea (10.7%)
Japan (11.5%)
Turkey (13.0%)
Luxembourg (17.4%)
Cyprus (22.5%)
Croatia (23.1%)
Chile (25.4%)
Netherlands (25.9%)
Greece (25.9%)
Italy (26.5%)

Overall, Honeypot finds women on average account for 31% of senior or managerial positions across all the 41 countries. None has a 50/50 equal split between male and female managers. The study also suggests that high average wages for women is also no guarantee of more balanced senior management representation. The Netherlands, Germany and Austria all appear within the bottom 15 for women in managerial positions, despite offering some of the highest average wages for women.“It’s incredibly important to include this aspect of gender disparity when discussing the pay gap, because as long as men account for the majority of top earners, women will never be able to close the gap,” said Emma Tracey.“This could be due in part to maternity-related disadvantages for women, who are often overlooked for promotions or return to underskilled jobs post childbirth.“Moving forwards, governments could look to the example of countries such as Sweden whose progressive maternity and paternity lawsprogressive maternity and paternity laws, as well as subsidised child care, has increased their gender balance in the workplace.”Email Carla Foden or call Fiona Murchie on + 44 (0)1892 891334 to find out more about Relocate's new "Think Women" community.

Read more about women and leadership in the global mobility sector in the Spring issue of our magazine

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