Women suffer significantly from and have experienced far more gender discrimination, according to a new report from Dice.
Image: iStock/fizkes
This week, Dice, a career hub for tech pros, released its first-ever Equality in Tech report, which surveyed nearly 10,000 employed tech leaders. It stated, “The intent of the report is to present sentiment and perspectives from technologists on racial and gender equality in the tech world and within their organizations,” and included only what Dice refers to as facts that are “statistically conclusive, in order to avoid discussions on the validity of certain data points.”
There exists a great divide between the experiences of women and men in technology.
Gender inequalities in the tech industry occur “very frequently,” said 31% of women, whereas 26% of men said it happened “occasionally” and 12% of men cited it as happening “very frequently”. Seventy-three percent of men said they have not experienced gender discrimination but 57% of women said they had.
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Fifty-three percent of women have witnessed gender discrimination in salary and benefits, yet only 24% of men report the same. There is a more than 20% difference between women and men in terms of the next top three categories of witnessing gender discrimination: respect for one’s technical abilities, leadership opportunities and promotional opportunities. While 36% of men reported, “I do not see any gender discrimination in the tech industry,” only 14% of women agreed. Other areas in which women experience more discrimination are hiring, project opportunities and additional code reviews.
Gender diversity as a business driver showed a significant difference. Women felt diversity improved company morale, innovation, company collaboration and company profits, whereas more men replied with “I don’t know” and “does not improve a company.”
Younger job seekers actively look for companies that “have robust diversity initiatives.”
Salary and satisfaction
In compensation and gender, 22% of men and 20% of women are “very satisfied” with their compensation; “somewhat satisfied” was reported by 33% women and 34% men; “somewhat dissatisfied” was reported by 22% women and 19% men. And in the category of “very dissatisfied,” 13% of women agreed, but only 10% of men did.
There’s also a difference in the perception of compensation fairness; 49% of women and 45% of men believe that they are underpaid relative to other people with the same occupation and skill level, only 35% of women and 30% of men said they are not, with 21% of both genders responding as “unsure.”
The report stated it found 44% of women and 49% of men said they negotiated their compensation at their most recent job. Conversely, 51% of women and 47% of men said they did not.
There are actually very few differences between men and women in terms of satisfaction with their career, as well as satisfaction with their jobs.
They are also nearly equal in their satisfaction with their managers, with the exception of “very satisfied” (34% of women, 36% of men) and “very dissatisfied” (12% women, 9% men).
All racial groups surveyed (Asian Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic and white) were generally “somewhat satisfied” with their compensation.
When asked, “Do you think that you are underpaid relative to other people with your same occupation and skill level in your current job?” 53% of Asian Indians said they are, with 48% Asian/Pacific Islanders, 50% Blacks, 53% Hispanic and 43% white.
Fifty-one percent of white respondents said they negotiated for their most recent salary, whereas only 39% of Asian Indian, 45% of Asian/Pacific Islanders, 40% of Blacks, and 43% of Hispanics said they negotiated.
All racial groups classified themselves as “somewhat satisfied” with their overall career, with Asian/Pacific Islanders at 40%, the highest in this category followed by whites, Asian Indians, Hispanics and Blacks. The same average percentages, also “somewhat satisfied,” were divided among the same racial groups when asked about the level of job satisfaction.
Assessing burnout
It has been previously reported that women bear the brunt of household responsibilities while working from home, and that has made 32% of women burned out or very burned out, compared to 30% of men. Here, too, there are few differences between men and women, regarding the biggest reasons they feel burned out, with the exception of workload (36% women, 41% men), hours worked (34% women, 36% men), overall COVID-19 pandemic stress (20% women, 15% men) and COVID-19 pandemic office safety (5% women, 3% men).
Both genders were in near agreement about burnout from lack of recognition for work, lack of challenges, lack of work/life balance overall, lack of time off, friction with the boss, friction with the team as well as the shift to remote work.
Asian Indians and Hispanics were the most burned out racial groups, at 33% each. Followed by 31% whites, 30% Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 25% Blacks.
Changing employers
Thirty-one percent of women and 30% of men said, “Yes I will likely change employers,” while 35% of women and 40% of men said, “No I will not likely change employers.” Only 29% of men and 32% of women were unsure.
In general men are more “impressed” with their companies’ response to diversity and inclusion movements. But there was a 20% divide between women (49%) and men (29%) when asked the importance of company changes in policies or practices to help support gender diversity and inclusion (a category in which more men deemed it “not at all important” and “unsure/prefer not to answer”).
A company’s reputation was deemed extremely influential to women (33%) more so than men (20%), and not at all influential to 22% of men and 10% of women.
Racial discrimination
More than half of Black technologist respondents (55%) believe racial inequality occurs frequently or very frequently in the tech industry. This is followed by Hispanic respondents (39%), Asian/Pacific Islander respondents (31%), white respondents (30%) and Asian Indian respondents (22%).
Nearly 80% of white people said they had experienced no racial discrimination, whereas nearly half of Blacks surveyed said they had. Blacks were also most frequently witnesses to various types of racial discrimination including salary and benefits; the second percentage indicates the response from whites (50%/16%), promotional opportunities (46%/18%), project opportunities (33%/18%), leadership opportunities (51%/20%), respect for one’s technical abilities (40%/18%), additional code reviews (11% percent/3%), and hiring (49%/23%).
Dice reported in 2016 that diverse organizations are 1.7 times more likely to be innovation leaders in their market.
When asked “Is it important to you that your company make changes in policies or practices to help support gender diversity and inclusion movements?” women (49%) found it way more important than men (29%), and only 7% of women and 17% of men said it was “not important at all.” Twenty percent of men preferred not to answer, while 15% of women also didn’t want to respond.
Reputation is “extremely influential” to women (33%, men 20%), moderately influential to 26% of women and 12% of men, and not at all influential to 22% of men and 10% of women.
Image: Dice
More than half of Black tech respondents (55%) believe racial inequality occurs frequently or very frequently in the tech industry, the highest of any group in the survey, followed by Hispanic at 39%, Asian/Pacific Islander at 33%, white at 30% and Asian Indian at 22%.
In experiencing racial discrimination, Black respondents were most likely to have been discriminated against (48%) and witness to racial discrimination (50%), with about 7% white respondents having been discriminated against and 16% witnessing it. Nearly 80% of white respondents said they had not experienced racial discrimination.
When participants were asked “Have you been impressed with your company’s response to recent Black Lives Matter, anti-racist or racial diversity and inclusion movements?” The majority of all respondents, in all racial groups, responded that they were unsure/prefer not to answer. However, when also asked “Is it important to you that your company make changes in policies or practices to help support Black Lives Matter, anti-racist or racial diversity and inclusion movements?” The most responses, by far, were “extremely important,” with more than 50% of Blacks, 45% of Asian Indians, 36% Hispanics, 28% Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 26% Blacks choosing this category.
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