More than half-a-million women “missing” from UK IT sector, tech body claims

A leading tech body has urged the new Labour technology secretary to ramp up efforts to bridge the sector’s gender gap.

In a letter to UK Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, trade  body, The Chartered for IT said more than 500,000 women are “missing” from the IT profession and “should be there” if representation was equal to other sectors.

The figure was drawn from the body’s analysis of the Office for National Statistics labour force survey.

BCS told Kyle that prioritising digital literacy in schools would help solve the diversity issue.

The letter, written by Rashik Parmar, chief executive for BCS, outlined a number of other recommendations “critical to the UK’s role as a leader on the world stage”.

Parmar asked Kyle to support the chartered status for technology professionals, so they are under the “same expectations of competence and ethics” as fields like accountancy or medicine.

Asking for new legislation on cyber security and the use of AI, the letter read: 

"As well as individuals, organisations themselves should publish their ethical policies for AI use, supported by independent audits, safe sandboxes and transparent governance. BCS has long supported the digital government agenda that you have made a policy priority and we are proud to have BCS fellows leading digital transformation across departments from  DWP to HMRC. 

"To strengthen critical national infrastructure, we ask you to support a mandatory  Cybersecurity Code of Practice and to require company boards to include a member accountable for cybersecurity."