We know that women are underrepresented in tech roles. Having worked for over 17 years in the digital sector in technology consulting roles, I can only confirm this reality. I operate in a deeply male-dominated environment. According to the latest McKinsey study, More Women in Tech, women make up only 22% of digital sector employees in the European Union. Other studies, such as Gender Scan 2022, place this figure at 17%. The representation is even lower in more technical digital roles. For instance, the percentage of women in DevOps and Cloud positions is just 8%, according to McKinsee. See table below from McKinsey study :
This Gender Gap Is a Major Societal Issue
Men alone shape society by designing, building, and delivering products and services that are not representative of the entire population. They develop knowledge and skills that will be crucial in the coming years, further widening the wage gap and the glass ceiling between men and women.
Like men, women must understand and master new digital challenges—they need to embrace artificial intelligence, cloud computing, data governance, and cybersecurity—or risk being left behind by the society they live in. These challenges are not purely technical; they are social and economic.
How can we envision a fourth industrial revolution without women?
“If women do not participate in tech, given its massive importance in our lives and societies, we risk losing much of the economic, political, and social progress achieved over the decades.” – Susan Wojcicki, Former CEO of YouTube
Initiatives Promoting Women in Tech
Numerous initiatives have emerged to increase women’s participation in tech. The French government has made several commitments to foster inclusion, including a charter to promote gender diversity in the digital sector. Signatories, including investment funds and financial actors, pledge to measure gender representation in their portfolios, adopt more inclusive recruitment and investment practices, and share best practices across the ecosystem.
The Femmes@Numérique Foundation, established under the Fondation de France, engages 42 founding companies to increase female representation in digital roles. The government also collaborates with digital schools to develop MOOCs, such as Propelling Women into Tech.
Tech companies themselves are increasingly committed to hiring more women. For example, under Susan Wojcicki, YouTube increased the percentage of female employees from 24% to 30%. At Microsoft, women now represent 29.7% of the global workforce.
Once hired, women need support. According to a Web Summit study, 57% of women in tech reported feeling burned out over the past year, compared to 36% of men. McKinsey reports that 70% feel they must work harder than men to prove themselves. Companies are implementing internal programs (training, communities, quotas, awards) to ensure equitable pay and support female career development and mobility.
More Efforts Needed to Accelerate Progress
Despite these efforts, the growth of women in tech remains slow—only 2% growth between 2020 and 2021, according to Gender Scan 2022. Companies struggle to recruit female talent that meets their criteria, revealing a persistent mismatch between the skills demanded in the digital sector and those available in the market. Achieving gender parity in this sector requires more work.
So how can we accelerate progress? Here are five concrete actions drawn from my own experience.
Action #1: Commit Daily to Inclusion
Every employee, male or female, in the digital sector can actively encourage women in their personal and professional network to explore the benefits of digital careers. Guide them toward relevant resources and training, and ensure women are properly represented in meetings and events—not just by their presence but by encouraging them to speak.
It’s essential to address any disrespectful behavior. While overt comments like “Can you make the coffee?” may have disappeared, women in tech still often face subtle undermining. Combating biases against women’s technical skills is a daily fight. Separating technical skills from education, appearance, or personal interests is a critical step toward reducing gender bias in technology.
Among women, sorority is key to support female colleagues professionally, help them reach their full potential, and overcome the glass ceiling. These actions can empower women to thrive in male-dominated environments, overcome imposter syndrome, and bring their ideas to life.
For example, you can sign the #JamaisSansElles Charter, adopted by companies like SAP and Microsoft, promoting gender diversity.
Action #2: Communicate the Variety of Digital Roles and Required Soft Skills
Digital careers are often reduced to coding, yet they are diverse and constantly evolving. Popular roles include data scientist, data analyst, product manager, program manager, technical sales specialist, presales consultant, business architect, enterprise architect, scrum master, customer success manager, cybersecurity specialist, apps innovation lead, DevOps lead, audience & personalization manager, chief data officer, chief technology officer, modern workplace manager.
These roles require technical knowledge, industry expertise, and strong soft skills: project management, research and synthesis, communication, problem-solving, growth mindset, etc. Highlighting soft skills resonates more with women than technical languages or software.
These skills are increasingly sought after by companies because they facilitate communication between business and technical teams and help implement often lacking governance. Flexibility, remote work options, and competitive salaries are also key attractors for women.
Action #3: Recognize Everyone’s Technical Competence
We all acquire technical skills over our lives. In France, “technical” is often linked to “geek culture,” math, or coding—but being technical simply means mastering a domain, understanding its workings, and finding solutions to problems.
Women don’t need to be “geeky” or have an IT degree to work in tech. Many digital roles combine technical and business expertise. For example, I implement marketing analytics tools, set up A/B tests, manage personalized content campaigns, and create dashboards. These are both technical and business skills.
Trust women’s experience—practice often outweighs formal training. In a rapidly evolving tech landscape, being technical also means continuous learning, curiosity, and problem-solving, not just coding bootcamps or degrees.
Action #4: Focus on Use and Benefits
Tech jargon—AI, dev, scrum, decision trees, prompts, roadmaps—can alienate women if they feel disconnected from the work’s purpose. Women often care more about how technology benefits society than the technology itself.
Highlight applications: improving workplace collaboration, reducing carbon emissions, accident detection, tracking food origins, home organization, wardrobe selection, vacation planning. Use analogies from daily life, not cars, Lego, or video games. Include testimonials from women in tech, from CEOs to operational roles, and incorporate inclusive design and colors.
Action #5: Implement Hybrid Tech-Functional Training and Value Career Transitions
Educational choices heavily influence perceptions of technical or business abilities. French education often splits students into “business” or “technical” tracks, limiting cross-skills development. Digital careers increasingly require hybrid tech-business competencies.
By creating mandatory hybrid training in business schools, engineering schools, and universities, we can attract more women into digital roles. Companies and educators working together can train women effectively and help them secure their first jobs.
Within companies, implement female career paths with training and mentorship to support role transitions. Encourage HR and recruiters to consider women in career changes—they may bring valuable diversity even if their CVs lack prior experience in the role.
For example, Jessica Hashwood, a former schoolteacher, transitioned to a pre-sales tech consultant at UKG through training and social media engagement. Highlighting female role models will be key to attracting more women to tech.
Career transitions and showcasing female role models will be key to attracting more women to the tech sector, I am convinced of it !
