Women accounted for 50% of the working age population in 2022 (those aged 16-64), 48% of those in work and 46% of the unemployed.
There were 380,000 female IT specialists in the UK in 2022 – 20% of all IT specialists in the UK at that time.
If gender representation in IT were equal to the workforce 'norm' there would have been an additional 527,000 IT specialists in the UK.
The level of female representation in IT varies by job type - from around one in twenty IT engineers (6% of the total over the 2018-22 period), to around one in three IT Project/programme Managers (30%).
The unemployment rate for female IT specialists in 2022 was 1.4% - less than that for males (1.7%) but less than half the rate for women as a whole within the UK labour market (3.6%).
The incidence of self-employment amongst female IT specialists (5%) was slightly below that recorded by men working in IT positions (7%).
By industry, gender representation for IT specialists was worst amongst Construction firms in 2022 where women accounted for just 12% of those in IT roles.
Female IT specialists were more than four times more likely to be working part-time than males (i.e. 13% versus 3%) during 2022 – most often as they did not want full-time work.
At £22 per hour, the median hourly earnings for female IT specialists in 2022 was 8% less than that recorded for males working in IT positions (as employees).
In 2022, female IT specialists (that were employees) appeared less likely than males to be in ‘positions with responsibility’ (comparison figures of 36% and 41% respectively).
Around seven in ten IT specialists held some form of HE level qualification (71%) and the proportion was higher amongst women than men (74% of females and 70% of males).
Just 4% of female IT specialists held some form of IT degree compared with 8% of their male counterparts.
The most common means of IT specialists (male/female) securing a job during the 2018-22 period was by ‘replying to an advertisement’ (39% and 31% respectively).
