Women Tech Council Report: The Gender Gap in Tech and How to Fix It

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Salt Lake City, UT — Women Tech Council (WTC), a national organization based in Silicon Slopes focused on increasing the number of women in technology, today released a research report documenting the gender gap in the tech sector and the practices that are effectively closing it. The report focuses on the four key areas needed for technology companies to accelerate the creation of more inclusive and diverse teams and cultures for women in tech.

“In order for a company to attract and retain the best talent while driving innovation and bottom-line success, inclusive cultures must be rooted in the organization’s DNA,” said Cydni Tetro, president of WTC. “By moving beyond single-factored solutions to deeper measures that anchor gender inclusivity firmly into an organization, the practices outlined in this research can help increase the number of women across the technology sector today and ensure that diverse workforces are sustained in the future.”

Released in conjunction with International Women’s Day, the report expands other research of the technology sector by moving past siloed and individual components to the programs and policies that have created inclusive cultures in some of the industry’s most successful technology companies. The research finds that when woven together and implemented simultaneously, the following four areas drive talent retention and high performance:

• Executive engagement (active support from the CEO, executive team and all leadership)
• Company programming (currently has women in executive leadership positions and proactively implements programs to support women in technology)
• Community investment (active participation with the broader community to learn from and share best practices regarding culture and inclusion)
• Women’s or Diversity & Inclusion group (formal programs to support women internally)

In addition to releasing this report, Women Tech Council also unveiled additional resources to help technology companies create more inclusive and diverse teams for women in tech:

• The 2019 Shatter List showcasing technology companies that are actively implementing programming under these four areas to create more gender-inclusive cultures and helping break the glass ceiling for women in tech. See the 2019 Shatter List at www.womentechcouncil.org.
• Three new Best Practices from WTC’s Diversity & Inclusion Forum detailing specific programs successfully implemented by Workfront, Pluralsight, and Adobe under the four criteria outlined in the report that created a measurable impact on gender inclusivity. See the Best Practices at www.womentechcouncil.org.

For more information about what more is being done to change the tech world for women, visit, www.womentechcouncil.org.