The technology sector has experienced real growth in the number of tech-focused startups. With this comes a rise in interest in studying IT-related subjects, but with what was once a male-dominated field, are we seeing progress in attracting more females to tech?
Go deploy’s latest research dives into data from Higher Education Student Statistics (HESA), to find out year-on-year how many males and females are studying IT and technology-related degrees, split also by those currently in education and those who have already graduated.
We then looked into ONS employment and labour statistics to determine the split of males and females in Information and Communication job roles over the past 5 years.
Key takeaways:
- A quarter of students studying computing degrees are now female
- Over the past five years, there’s been a 2% increase in the share of females studying engineering and technology degrees
- 70.4% of information and communication roles in the UK are filled by males
Engineering and technology, and computing degrees see growth in gender equality
Over the past five years, both engineering and technology, and computing degrees have seen an increase in the balance between males and females studying – though we’re still far off from a 50/50 split.
Previously, just 19.9% of those studying engineering and technology degrees were female – this has now improved to 21.9% in 2024. Making even greater progress, the share of females studying computing has shot up from 19.9% in 2019 to 25.3% in 2024.
The gender split of undergraduates sees a slight improvement
Focusing specifically on undergraduates, the balance between males and females studying has seen a slight improvement.
In the academic year 2019/20, 18.2% of those studying engineering and technology were female. Fast forward to 2023/24, and this number has climbed to just below 20% (19.8%).
Computing studies have shown even more of an improvement, with female undergraduates now making up 21.1% – a 4% improvement from 17.1% in 2019.
Read the full article here.
