Nearly double number of men working in digital than women

Nick Elvin

There are currently nearly twice as many men working in the digital sector than women, according to a new study by recruitment agency The Candidate.

The research, which looked at 150 digital businesses across the North of England, also found there is a significant lack of females in management roles, with 156% more men taking up these jobs. The situation is more severe at senior management level, with just 18 out of the 150 firms headed up by women.

The study, outlined in The Candidate’s ‘Women in Digital’ report, which looks at how women are paving their way in a traditionally male-dominated industry, shows the extent of the male/female divide, whether salaries are gender neutral, and the state of flexible working and benefit policies.

The Candidate found that ‘soft skill’ jobs tend to be favoured by women, with the top three roles being in marketing and social media (27%), public relations and communications (18%), and account management (14%). The more ‘technical’ roles such as search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) were taken by men.

Brian Matthews, managing partner at The Candidate said: “We were keen to do research into a topic that could really benefit the digital sector by opening its eyes to some of the fundamental issues affecting the industry.

“We know there is a lack of professionals with digital skills, especially in the North, but we wanted to find out whether a gender gap might be a contributing factor. What we discovered in our findings, is that we could potentially be alienating women, and discouraging them from taking up a career in digital – thus missing out on a big proportion of talent.”

Matthews said ways to encourage more women into the sector include implementing good flexible working schemes and closing crucial gender pay gaps. Education providers should be more encouraging when it comes to apprenticeships and work experience opportunities in digital.

“Our research revealed this has vastly improved in the last 10 years, but we need to put an emphasis on this to bring fresh talent through the ranks,” he added.