Businesses know they have major skills deficits, but less than half plan on hiring more women

Only four-in-ten businesses have programs in place to hire more women, new research shows, despite a majority of IT professionals agreeing that there's not enough diversity in the sector.

According to a new study from ISACA, three-quarters of businesses say that attracting and retaining talent is a challenge. But female IT professionals believe they are still being shut out.

Nearly half (43%) of female respondents said a main reason that women are still underrepresented in tech roles is because most IT role models and leaders are male.

Other key issues highlighted in the study included pay inequality, according to 42% of women, though this was recognized by only 15% of men.

Overall, men tended to rate their sense of authority in specific areas of their current role more highly than women. This showed up particularly when it came to making purchasing decisions, where there was a gap of 13 percentage points, and in contributing to company strategy and direction, with a 10-point gap.

"More needs to be done to increase the representation of women in the IT and technology sector — and more needs to be done to welcome their leadership and influence," said Julia Kanouse, chief membership officer at ISACA, who oversees the association’s SheLeadsTech program.

"This will not only help to address the global skills gap and boost productivity in the sector—it will also create a more inclusive and diverse working environment."

The survey found that more than half of women would like to see more mentors or role models, with others calling for tech clubs or women's networking groups and for more female tech professors to be hired.

However, 68% of women - along with 72% of men - said they were extremely or very satisfied with their career progression. Meanwhile, 73% of women and 71% percent of men said they had received a salary increase or promotion in the last two years.

"Encouragingly, women have near-equal career progression satisfaction to their male counterparts and are slightly more likely to have received a raise or a promotion in the last two years," said Sarah Orton, UK and Europe lead for ISACA's SheLeadsTech initiative.

A report this time last year from career advice site Women in Tech uncovered five common obstacles facing women entering the tech sector.

These included lack of awareness and industry contact, a lack of role models, confidence issues, exclusionary hiring processes, and discrimination - all similar to the barriers identified by ISACA.

"Having a workforce of people with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to bring to the table is not only the right thing to do – it’s also a business imperative that makes an organization more innovative and its work that much more efficient and effective,” Orton said.

“Progress has been made – but the sector has more work to do.”