HR Strategies For Women Employees In IT Sector Needs A Major Change: Find Out Why, And How?

This is a Guest Blog by Ms. Yogita Tulsiani, MD & Co-founder, iXceed Solutions (Global Tech-Recruiter Provider)

As it has historically been dominated by men, the Indian technology industry has a long history of discrimination against women.

However, as new technologies have emerged, there has been a significant change in how women behave, with IT now becoming one of the most popular job paths. According to recent data from the Ministry of Education, the percentage of women enrolling in B.Tech and other IT degrees climbed dramatically between 2016 and 2021, rising from 8% to 19.72%. There is still a significant gender gap in the Indian tech sector, which calls for urgent action to advance inclusivity, diversity, and increased profitability.

Women typically give up on their careers by the time they are in their mid-thirties in order to meet societal and cultural responsibilities. Although there are virtually as many women entering the IT business as there are males, their proportion in the industry definitely declines as they move up to senior positions. According to the statistics, women make up close to 51% of entry-level hires, 25% of management jobs, and less than 1% of C-suite positions. As a result, there is a significant gender diversity gap in the business, which is still dominated by men.

Talent managers put forth a lot of effort to combat biases in the industry, running awareness campaigns or educating the workforce. To entirely remove it from the spectrum, though, a few additional steps must still be made on the ground.

Leveraging the certification and upskilling programs

Despite being competent candidates, women making comebacks in their careers are always forced to start afresh. Even if they are joining after a sabbatical, women need to start from scratch which becomes a barrier in the path of their career. To combat such situations, women must enroll themselves in strong certification or upskilling programs that hone their skills and strengthens their portfolio. It complements to their experience and puts them on the radar of recruiters in top organizations. As a result, women can keep up the pace with their counterparts and no longer have to prove their expertise or settle for less in the tech industry again.    

Exposure to new technologies and automation

New technologies are disrupting the digital landscape considering their incredible potential to pull off conventional tasks in the workplace. To win the race of gender diversity, women must be adept at using the technologies that companies are utilizing to expedite their business journey. Getting exposure to technologies like AI, ML, Blockchain, IoT and others can help women gain more clarity on their career path. It will pose as a vital step in breaking the barriers in career progressions and job appraisals. This will open more opportunities to women in their own technical roles and responsibilities, thereby becoming future-proof. 

Acquiring a new skill set on technology tools

In the present scenario, technological transformation is the key to business sustainability that is backed by deep analytics. Women in the tech sector must have hands-on with relevant tools to make sense of existing data sets and visualising them. By acquiring expertise in advanced technology tools, women can become industry ready with no more mansplaining. In a gender-sundry business environment,  it is always the skill set that wins over the gender divide in the industry. Women should strive to equip themselves with changing needs of the technology sector to secure their professional journey not only in their existing organization but also in the industry. 

Bottom line:

Although the corporate world has changed significantly for women over the past 20 years, removing both physical and psychological barriers can give modern women new responsibilities to alter the current technology sector landscape. Organizations are steadily closing gender-based pay inequities as new skills and abilities are incorporated into the larger picture. Strong technological know-how and skill sets are enabling women to take the lead in advancing inclusion. Women are therefore embracing their efforts to change the problems that have long been against them.