Women accounted for 51% of the working age population (those aged 16-64) in 2025, 49% of those in work and 46% of the unemployed.
There were 433,000 female IT specialists in the UK in 2025 – 22% of all IT specialists in the UK at that time.
If gender representation in IT were equal to the workforce 'norm' (49%) there would have been an additional 535,000 female IT specialists in the UK.
The level of female representation in IT varies by job type - from under one in ten IT/Telecoms Engineers (7% and 8% respectively), to around one in three IT Project/Programme Managers, Web Designers/ Developers and IT Operations Technicians (34%, 29% and 32% respectively).
At 3.8% the associated unemployment rate1 for female IT specialists was notably higher than for males normally working in the IT field (3.0%) but still well below the overall unemployment rate for women in the UK (4.6%).
The incidence of self-employment amongst female IT specialists (4%) was lower than that recorded by men working in IT positions (7%).
By industry, gender representation for IT specialists was worst amongst construction firms in 2025 where women accounted for just 17% of those in IT roles.
Female IT specialists were around three times more likely to be working part-time than males during 2025 (i.e. 11% versus 4%) – most often as they did not want full-time work.
At £24 per hour, the median hourly earnings for female IT specialists in 2025 was 10% less than that recorded for males working in IT positions (for those working full time as employees).
Female IT specialists working as employees were less likely than males to be in ‘positions of responsibility’ i.e. managerial/supervisory roles (38% vs 41%).
They were also more likely to rate their own managers as being poor/very poor at involving them (employees / representatives) in decision making when compared with male IT specialists (19% vs 17%).
Around eight in ten (78%) female IT specialists held some form of HE level qualification in 2025 - compared with around seven in ten males (72%).
Just 7% of female IT specialists held some form of IT degree compared with 12% of their male counterparts.
Very few female or male IT specialists (3 to 4%) thought they lacked the skills required to perform their existing work duties.
The most common means of IT specialists (female/male) securing a job during the 2021-25 period was by ‘replying to an advertisement’ (42% and 32% respectively).
