{"id":7298,"date":"2023-12-04T12:49:16","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T12:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/members.dataiq.global\/?post_type=article&p=7298"},"modified":"2024-03-21T10:42:52","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T10:42:52","slug":"women-in-entry-level-roles-halved","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/articles\/women-in-entry-level-roles-halved\/","title":{"rendered":"Number of women in entry-level data roles more than halved in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

This discrepancy with women in STEM roles such as data has been highlighted many\u00a0<\/span>reports and charity groups, including the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Anumana Code Academy<\/span><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Girls\u00a0<\/span>Into<\/span>\u00a0Coding<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0At the end of 2022, it was noted that only\u00a0<\/span><\/span>one in five women<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0were considering a data-based career and the start of 2023 saw claims that\u00a0<\/span><\/span>DEI\u00a0<\/span>initia<\/span>ti<\/span>ves<\/span>\u00a0in the UK had lost moment<\/span>um<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 which\u00a0<\/span>now appears to be<\/span>\u00a0the case<\/span>\u00a0with decreasing statistics.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The latest findings<\/span> for women<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

There is a small level of discrepancy between nations and their specifics, but the overall headline is that progress made in recent years has been lost. Although the Netherlands decreased its data gender wage gap\u00a0from 23% to 10%, the UK has seen the wage gap increase from 10% in 2022 to 16% in 2023\u00a0and\u00a0the US has also increased its gender wage gap.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the US, women were just 12% of entry-level data positions compared to 36% in 2022, and in the UK the\u00a0number decreased to just 11% from 2022 levels of 35%. In the wider EU market, there was a decline in representation for women\u00a0from 37% to 34% \u2013 a\u00a0smaller decrease than the UK and the US, but a decrease, nonetheless. The only region to buck this trend was the Netherlands where entry-level positions have\u00a0been\u00a0taken in the majority by women at 60%\u00a0for 2023.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is, however, a small glimmer of hope that not all momentum for positive change has been lost. In the UK mid-tier positions have improved parity by reaching 37% in total, with 35% of technical lead and managerial positions being held by women.\u00a0This is improved further in the US where women occupy 39% of the equivalent mid-tier positions.\u00a0In the EU, the representation of women in director positions has increased from 11% in 2022 to 15% in 2023.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHiring new talent is always an early casualty of economic slowdown as organisations hoard cash and freeze recruitment,\u201d said David Reed, chief knowledge officer and evangelist, DataIQ. \u201cIn the short-term, this has relatively\u00a0little impact. But as soon as markets recover and demand for skills grows, it leaves businesses chasing\u00a0a very limited\u00a0pool.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes the decline in female entrants into data and analytics especially worrying, however, is the effect on diversity just at the point when automated decision-making, thanks to AI, is growing fast. Without the balanced perspective of both genders in the room when models are built and tested, bias is bound to result. It may even be that the current focus on gen AI is embedding even further the sense of data being an extension of the male-dominated world of tech.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Harnam report is part of its annual Diversity\u00a0In\u00a0Data report, surveying more than 6,500 professionals across the UK, US,\u00a0France\u00a0and Netherlands. The report examines the distribution of pay, diversity across\u00a0different levels\u00a0of\u00a0employment and leadership\u00a0and analyses what professional benefits are\u00a0deemed\u00a0most appealing to different demographics.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese findings present a disappointing move in the wrong direction, particularly as female representation at a junior level has been on a steady incline over recent years and because this section of the workforce is representative of the industry\u2019s future,\u201d said David Farmer, chief executive officer,\u00a0\u00a0Harnham.\u00a0\u201cThe data industry\u2019s ability to operate as an innovative, forward-thinking sector is reliant on a constant stream of high-quality talent, and if, as employers, we\u2019re failing to reach or retain any section of the population, our growth and success will quickly hit a ceiling.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2023,\u00a0DataIQ\u00a0launched its own\u00a0<\/span>DEI working group<\/span><\/a>. The purpose of the working group is to gather intel, best practice, Q&As and case studies from members and partner DEI organisations to be shared within the wider\u00a0DataIQ\u00a0community. This will be released as public and members only content to encourage more diverse data teams for the community. The select members only content pieces will dive into more detail, such as case studies and best practice guides.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To get involved with the DataIQ DEI working group, you must be a member and contact Alex Roberts at\u00a0<\/span>alex.roberts@dataiq.global<\/span><\/a>. To become a DataIQ member, click\u00a0<\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The proportion of women in entry-level data roles has more than halved in the UK and the US and declined in the EU data industry in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":7299,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[129,127],"tags":[355,356,354,357,358,359,121,306],"pillar":[194],"class_list":["post-7298","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-news","tag-dei","tag-diversity","tag-equality","tag-inclusion","tag-recruitment","tag-retention","tag-skills","tag-talent","pillar-leadership"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 06:47:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/7298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/7298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7298"},{"taxonomy":"pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pillar?post=7298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}