Post updated 17 May 2024, information from Toi Mai’s latest report has different workforce %’s so we’ve corrected our stats below too.

According to TechWomen, only 23% of Aotearoa’s tech workforce are women. Toi Mai’s latest research shows this as closer to 29% (hooray, let’s keep improving!)

Last year, Summer of Tech employers hired fewer interns overall (our placements shrank 40% compared to 2022), but those who hired, did it differently: for the first time EVER, the majority of roles were filled by women. We saw an increase in Māori and Pasifika placements too: 8% of our final cohort, compared to 4% of the tech workforce. Update from Toi Mai’s December 2023 report, apparently it’s 5% Māori and 4.4% Pasifika, so 9.4% for industry, our % is lower than industry average :-(

(In this blog post from November 2023 we shared insights from our first 100 placements, when we first spotted these hiring trends. At that stage, Māori & Pasifika made up 14% of placements.)

What happened in 2023?

Data on tertiary enrolments are very hard to come by, but we hear that although 60% of students in STEM majors are women, the numbers in IT / computer science and software engineering majors in the universities are around 30% women. In Summer of Tech (since 2017-ish when we started measuring,) we’ve had a consistent 30%-ish of SoT candidates identifying as women and non-binary genders. So far, not a surprise. But did you know we consistently get 40%-ish of offers accepted by non-males? Hmm, something is happening out there - Summer of Tech employers have always been proactively hiring women. They have told us that our proactive search and anonymised search tools are helping them address bias in their recruitment process. And they’ve also shown us by their actions that they are actively seeking interns and graduates that are non-male.

In 2023 we saw even MORE proactive hiring of women. No major change in the gender split of our candidate pool, but a significant increase in women hired. Our theory is that in this year of shrinking headcount and shrinking budgets for interns and grads, employers were able to be even more explicit about their reasons for hiring: junior talent strategy has become even more focused on closing representation gaps in teams and in industry as a whole.

In the midst of our 2023 struggles, we are celebrating this small win for equity, it’s a great sign that Aotearoa’s tech employers are doing what they can to address the gender imbalance in our workforce.

We look forward to supporting y’all to hire more women this year. Let’s also hear it for other underrepresented folks! We can help you find awesome candidates who also identify as non-male… or perhaps they’re Māori & Pasifika, people with disabilities, people from non-mainstream education and career pathways. Equity, inclusion and representation is good for your business, for our industry and for our society.

Businesses that succeed at Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are hiring for equity and inclusion at ALL levels, not just juniors. If your organisation is a monoculture, it is unlikely to be a safe and easy journey for a diverse intern or graduate coming into your team. While a strategic DEI hiring approach to juniors is a great thing, we love to see it at all levels - the “leaky pipeline” isn’t just about people coming into our industry, so much can be addressed around retention and career progression of underrepresented folks in tech!

Need more evidence? Read on:

Why is gender representation in tech a problem?

• The number of tech roles is increasing so to keep the economy growing well we need to ensure women (and Māori, Pasifika, career switchers, and other growing demographics) are interested in taking on tech roles.

• According to international research, tech firms that have a gender balance have better financial performance.

Working to close the gender gap in technology offers business benefits as well. A 2020 McKinsey report shows that companies with a diverse workforce are 25% more likely to achieve above-average profitability. Women leaders in tech can also help achieve higher returns on investments, according to Forbes. Additional benefits of a diverse workforce for businesses include a better talent bench, increased employee engagement, and higher worker retention rates.

from gracehopper.com, worth a look for more tips for DEI strategy

• finally, some jaw-dropping reading about gender bias in product design has led to the inconvenience of no nappy change tables in men’s toilets, through to the deaths of women in the frontline of law enforcement.

Here’s some (more) of that international research:

The longest running study on women in industry is the North American focused McKinsey & Co series. Here’s their 2023 Women in the Workplace report.

This CIO article identifies the gaps throughout the tech sector workforce. It’s US data, but NZ’s numbers and issues are similar…

(Even) More research & resources from Aotearoa

How to improve participation rates for Māori, Pacific people and wāhine in the creative technology workforce in Aotearoa - Toi Mai Createch (creative technologies) leaky pipeline reports

The 2021 Digital Skills for our Digital Future report has more detail about representation in our digital workforce.

Tips for retaining, growing, promoting and supporting women through their careers - NZ Marketing Association’s “leaky pipeline” article

Finally, an event for anyone wanting to participate in braver conversations on equitable culture: check out AllyShift 18 April 2024 in Auckland.