Women in Tech Are Fighting More Than Just a Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted women in tech. Megan Headley, VP of research at TrustRadius, speaks about new a research that shines a light on the new and ongoing challenges women face in the tech industry today. 

During the pandemic, women in tech lost more than jobs. They took on a greater share of the burden at home and found more of their careers stalled by the economic impacts of this crisis. But that’s not all they face today. On top of a worldwide disaster, women still face challenges that already existed in the tech industry—including unconscious bias, “bro culture”, outright sexism, and the “broken rung” that keeps them from being promoted to the uppermost leadership roles. 

The TrustRadius 2021 Women in Tech ReportOpens a new window shines a light on all of these issues. From the experience of over 450 tech professionals, we confirmed that COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted female employees—and we discovered what they want us to do about it. 

How Did COVID-19 Impact Women in Tech?

The economic fallout of COVID-19 caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs. TrustRadius found that women were twice as likely to lose their jobs than men in the tech sector. The research also showed that female employees who kept their jobs were more likely to see COVID-related workload increases. 57% of women say they feel burned out at work this year, and 43% of women work overtime. 

Women in Tech Face Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19
Source: TrustRadius

In a demonstration of resilience, women have also taken opportunities during the last year. 14% of respondents said they started their own business (compared to 6% of men). We also saw that 62% of women in tech believe they will earn a promotion in the next two years, which is on par with last year’s pre-crisis data.

Unfortunately, these encouraging statistics are undercut by persistent racial and gender disparity in the tech industry. Moreover, women of color feel 27% less confident they will get a promotion than white women. Women as a whole are four times more likely than men to see gender as a barrier to promotion. 

Work-Life Balance Is Nearly Impossible for Women in Tech

After a year in the “new normal”, we were also interested to see how women in tech view remote work. The women we surveyed were evenly split on how they view the impact of working from home. 42% say remote work has had a negative impact, 41% say the impact has been positive. 

We believe a major reason for this divide comes from what happens outside of the workplace. COVID-19 caused a severe increase in household work for everyone—but research from TrustRadius shows that most of that work fell to women. 42% of women felt they took on more work than their partners. Just 10% of men felt the same. Besides, it’s important to note that 53% of respondents say the division of household labor hasn’t changed in their homes. 

This is a classic case where maintenance of the status quo is not progress. The pre-pandemic distribution of labor was already rooted in inequality. COVID-19 only exacerbated this challenge for women. 

Inequalities Still Exist Beyond the Pandemic 

While COVID-19 brought significant changes to all of our lives, the majority of our respondents said that gender equality had not changed at their companies over the past year. In terms of office culture, the report saw similar numbers to last year. 72% of women say they have worked in an environment with pervasive “bro culture”. 71% of last year’s women respondents said the same. 

This year we discovered that bro culture varies significantly by the department—83% of women in sales and 80% of women in marketing experience this issue in 2021. In comparison, 63% of women in engineering and IT have experienced the pervasive culture.

This challenge could be helped by getting a greater representation for women in tech departments—but that’s still a challenge for most companies. 72% of women say they are outnumbered by 2:1 or more in workplace meetings. 26% say they are outnumbered 5:1 or more. 

How to Address These Issues? 

By now, most corporate leaders are very much aware of the challenges female employees face. But very few companies know what to do to fix them. That’s why TrustRadius asked women in tech for their opinions on how we should address these issues. 79% of women said companies should promote more women to leadership positions to support female employees. Other popular solutions include unconscious bias training, flexible scheduling, and mentorship opportunities. 

Women in Tech Want Concrete Solutions for Inequality Issues
Source: TrustRadius

According to Megan Headley, VP of Research at TrustRadius, “The first step is to listen. A great way to understand what you could be doing differently or what your team needs in terms of better support is to ask them directly. After that, your primary responsibility is to make a commitment and start taking action. Many companies are ‘all talk and no action’ when it comes to addressing inequality. We have to do better.”

Did you enjoy reading this article? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!