Why does gender diversity in the workplace matter?

Diversity in the workplace can bring so much more than a statistic your marketing team can proudly shout about.

Businesses with greater gender diversity have better returns and less volatility. Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15% more likely to outperform against industry medians.

If women and people of colour don’t have a seat at the table designing our future we are baking into our system’s bias without even realising it.

- Melinda Gates

IT hasn’t always been so male-dominated. During the tech boom in the 80’s, women contributed 38% of the industry’s workforce. Now, thirty years on, the percentage has halved.

Whilst the number of girls interested in a technology-related career falls, the tech job market is growing faster than any other. If we’re going to meet the technology workforce needs and continue to be European leaders in this industry, then we need to start appealing more to the gender which makes up 51% of the population.

An equal employment ratio is a sign of a healthy and inclusive culture. When it comes to recruitment, diversity can help build your employer brand and attract talent that wouldn’t normally apply for positions at your company.

Better yet, if you can build your leadership team to have a fair gender representation, you can inspire other females to aim higher than the lower paying IT jobs that women typically hold today.