According to a recent book called Brotopia, women in the tech sector in Silicon Valley are having a tough go of it. They never know what they are going to be walking into when called for meetings, and companies regularly have sex parties and company lunches at strip clubs. But it’s not just the women already in the industry finding problems – women are discouraged from a young age from pursuing tech studies, often as early as elementary school. So how can we level the playing field so women have access to high paying tech jobs?
Women make up half of the workforce in the United States but account for only about 20% of the tech jobs. This means they are missing out on average salaries in the low $100k range and picking from the general job pool where the average is around $50k.
There are some notable companies working toward greater equality. SalesForce did an internal review of 17,000 employees which ended in their spending an extra $3 million in payroll to close the gender pay gap. Intuit invests in the recruitment, training, and retention of women in their ranks, which has allowed them to surpass industry averages regarding women in tech and other positions.
For every Sheryl Sandberg in the world there are thousands of women just hoping to get a fair chance at a good job in tech. Learn more about the trials of women in tech and how we can work toward closing the gap from this infographic!
