Since the pandemic, the world of work has been turned upside down on multiple occasions. We’ve gone from the office 9-5 to hybrid working or, in some cases, fully remote. However, as more companies reverse decisions on these practices and increase pressure to ‘return to the office’, could women be at risk of yet another workplace disadvantage?
While this may be a broad issue that could impact workforces and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) programmes across a range of specialisms, if we focus on the tech industry, where female representation is already low, the scale of this issue is perhaps more pertinent.
The gender imbalance
By means of context, the tech sector is notorious for its gender imbalance. Whether it’s due to a lack of representation – women make up roughly a quarter (26%) of the tech workforce – bias, or imposter syndrome taking hold, females can be disadvantaged at almost every level.
Gender diversity at entry level has long been below acceptable levels, hence the low levels of female representation across the entire workforce. However, this becomes more prominent at senior levels. Less than one in ten C-suite leaders at tech companies are female, just 3% of CTOs or Technical Directors are women, and only 3% of Venture Capital funding (seed, early and late stage) go to all-female teams – compared to 68% going to all-male teams.
The tech industry’s gender pay gap – which sits at 16%, higher than the 11.6% UK national average – is certainly not helping matters. However, while the onus is very much on businesses to ensure equal pay and equal opportunities, there is also a need to recognise what other practices are hindering gender equality.
The visibility problem
As a case in point, recent research has revealed that women in tech are twice as likely to be seen in the office – with 16% of females heading into the workplace at least three days per week compared to 8% of men. Yet this trend is not indicative of a greater desire to be in the workplace from women. In fact, when asked what the most important element of a job description is, most women (37%) said flexible working. This suggests that while females favour flexible working, they are less likely to get it.
The key question that HR teams need to address urgently is why this is happening, particularly at a time when flexible working is more widely embraced that it has arguably ever been.
While there’s likely to be a range of factors and every business is, of course, unique, our research suggests that women could be more likely to face pressure to turn up to work. Imposter syndrome is a pervasive problem for females, particularly those in senior positions or male-dominated professions. The higher percentage of women heading into the office despite a desire for more flexibility could be the result of imposter syndrome at work.
However, we can’t ignore the fact that this could also be indicative of the current lack of female representation of women in leadership positions in the sector. With more men in senior-level positions, they are arguably more likely to have a say in their own working hours, as well as the working models adopted by the wider team. This means that what women need or want in their roles in terms of flexibility may be being neglected inadvertently.
The impact of the return to work
Irrespective of gender, the recent return-to-work focus that we’ve seen from many organisations, including Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Facebook, is set to be wildly unpopular. Lorien’s research found that less than 5% of all tech candidates want to work full time in the office in the future. However, should employers continue to push ahead with these plans, it could be particularly hard on women.
The lack of female representation in decision making roles could mean that women – who are already prioritising flexibility in their job search – are left without a voice when it comes to working arrangements. There’s also the fact that females arguably already take on the lion’s share of domestic and caring tasks outside of the workplace. As a result, reversing flexible working risks taking away that support and consciousness, effectively setting women back. For already female-scarce sectors, this could lead to higher exit rates and lower recruitment success.
That’s not to say that remote working is without its flaws when it comes to supporting women in the workplace, though. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that fulltime remote and hybrid working could be harmful to people’s careers – especially women’s. According to a study by Catalyst – a non-profit which helps accelerate women into leadership roles – 45% of female business leaders struggle to speak up in virtual meetings, meaning that there’s the potential for women to be heard less in a remote working environment
Virtual working also has the potential to cause a disconnection between staff and what’s happening in the business. By being away from the workplace, staff are naturally less connected to what’s going on in other departments, meaning people could be overlooked for opportunities, crucial interpersonal relationships with colleagues can suffer, and it can be tougher to be recognised for hard work. All of this means that those who embrace remote working fulltime could see their careers stifled unless appropriate practices are implemented. In fact, YouGov data suggests that 69% of business leaders believe that those starting their career remotely will struggle to progress.
Organisations that embrace remote working also need to be aware of the unspoken pressure that can exist for employees. According to a report from Qatalag and Github, 54% of remote workers report feeling pressure to show their online status during the working day, and spend an extra 67 minutes online each day doing menial tasks just to prove they are working.
Striking the balance
Finding the right balance between remote and in-office working that doesn’t inadvertently disadvantage women is crucial for HR teams across every remit, not just those sectors that are struggling to improve female representation. Companies looking to drive the return to work will need to be mindful of their female workforce so as not to negatively impact progression, work-life balance, or worse yet – drive them out of the industry completely.
With such a mismatch in male and female perspectives on flexibility – both in priority and current set-up – it could be very easy to create a work environment that benefits one over the other, and in doing so inadvertently contribute to pre-existing female shortages from top to bottom, a scenario no-one wants to come to fruition.
