BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, is calling on the new Labour government to do more to attract women into IT amid claims that there are half a million ‘missing’ from the sector.
In a letter to Peter Kyle, the new technology secretary, BCS chief executive Rashik Parmar called for more support to get women into the industry.
"To secure the future, we need to prioritise digital literacy in schools and make tech careers appeal to a far broader group of people," he wrote.
"I know, like me you will be aghast that over 500,000 women are ‘missing’ from the UK’s technology sector, who should be there if representation was equal to other professions."
BCS analysis of ONS IT labor market data last year showed that there were a potential 754,000 under-represented workers missing from the IT industry - a figure that didn’t improve in 2023.
If gender representation in IT were equal to the workforce 'norm', there would be an additional 527,000 IT specialists in the UK, according to BCS.
Previous ONS census data shows that in 1981, 19% of the IT workforce was female; in 2011, it was 19.2%. The highest it's ever been was 20.9% in 1991 - with data from the Labour Force Survey showing that even as far back as 1975 there was 19.7% representation of women in IT.
Meanwhile, of the 1.9 million IT specialists based in the UK in 2022, just 22% (416,000) were aged 50 or above. If representation of this age group in IT was equal to the workforce norm, this could add an extra 141,000 IT specialists in the UK.
Similarly, if representation in IT was equal to the workforce norm there would be 88,000 more IT specialists in the UK with disabilities.
"If we base our conclusions solely on the trend indicated by the last three years, it will take just 19 years to achieve gender parity in the IT workforce — however, a straight-line graph from 2005 to 2023 shows it will take around 280 years,” researchers said.
Parmar's letter also calls on the government to implement the BCS manifesto, tightening up the regulation of IT professionals.
BCS also wants to see a mandatory Cybersecurity Code of Practice and a requirement for company boards to include a member accountable for cybersecurity.
"By setting the highest standards for those who direct and develop IT in public sector areas like health and across the civil service, the UK can be an example to the world," he wrote.
“That’s why I ask you to support Chartered status for technology professionals, setting the same expectations of competence and ethics as regulated fields like accountancy and medicine. As well as individuals, organisations themselves should publish their ethical policies for AI use, supported by independent audits, safe sandboxes and transparent governance."
