Why Women Still Aren’t Evenly Spaced Across Tech Jobs — and What Might Change It

A clear gap between classrooms and corner offices

Digital Silk’s new review of who works in technology paints a familiar picture: more women are studying STEM than in the recent past, but the job market still funnels many of them away from core engineering roles and top leadership. The study reads like a map of leaks. At the earliest stages — college majors and entry-level hiring — the numbers look better than they once did. But as careers progress, women thin out in key technical teams and grow rarer at the director and executive levels. The result is a tech industry that is more diverse on paper than it is where decisions are made.

Where women land in tech today

Digital Silk collects a range of public and private data to show how women are spread across jobs in technology companies. The pattern is consistent: women are well represented in roles tied to product support, design, marketing and customer success, and they are more visible in HR and communications than in software engineering or data science.

The study also highlights a steady, but slow, rise in the share of women earning STEM degrees. That progress helps boost the pool of potential hires. Yet corporate hiring and promotion practices mean those graduates are not always steered toward or kept in core technical tracks.

Mid-career attrition is another important area the study flags. Many women who start in engineering move into product management, user experience, or leave the sector entirely. The report links this to cultural problems inside teams — lack of mentorship, inflexible schedules, and environments where technical contributions from women are undervalued.

Pay and recognition gaps remain a recurring theme. While the study does not promise sweeping new numbers, it notes that women in comparable roles are often less likely to hold senior titles and to receive the highest bonuses or equity grants. That partly explains why fewer women reach the C-suite where long-term wealth and decision-making power concentrate.

How the education pipeline helps — and where it falls short

One hopeful signal is that more young women are taking calculus, computer science, and engineering classes than in previous decades. University programs have also launched outreach and scholarship efforts targeted at women, which shows up in higher enrollments in some fields. That means the raw talent supply is improving.

But the transition from classroom to career is uneven. Employers may prefer candidates with internships or competitive summer roles, and those opportunities often go to students who already have mentors or informal networks. Women without those connections can be boxed out before they ever get a fair shot at a full-time engineering role.

Another loss point is choice of major versus job placement. Students who study computer science are more likely to go into engineering careers than those who study engineering-adjacent subjects. The study suggests that advising and early work experiences steer many women into roles that are less technical by design or necessity.

Leadership looks different from the technical floor

Where decisions get made, women are still underrepresented. Digital Silk’s review finds that women hold fewer seats on engineering leadership teams and executive boards than their overall share of the workforce would predict. That gap matters because leaders set hiring standards, promotion paths and culture.

The study points to two root causes. First, promotion processes often reward visible technical wins that are less accessible to those who shoulder team-building or cross-functional work. Second, sponsorship — someone in power actively pushing for your next role — is uneven. Women report having mentors more often than sponsors, and sponsorship is what typically unlocks senior roles.

Practical moves employers and schools can take

Digital Silk highlights concrete steps companies and educators can try to stop the leaks. On the employer side this means clearer promotion criteria, standardized pay reviews, and structured sponsorship programs that pair rising women with senior advocates. It also means redesigning internships and entry-level roles so they give real technical exposure rather than steering people into support positions by default.

For schools, the study recommends expanding hands-on lab access and industry partnerships, so students can build relevant experience before they graduate. Outreach and financial aid help, but so does giving students practical project work that mirrors real engineering jobs.

How the study was put together and its limits

Digital Silk builds its picture by combining public company reports, academic enrollment figures, and employer surveys. That mix produces a useful snapshot, but it has limits: the data is inevitably uneven across regions and company sizes, and surveys reflect who chose to answer. The report offers broad trends rather than a precise census.

Another limitation is intersectionality. Race, socioeconomic background, disability status and other factors change the experience many women face, but the study treats women as a relatively uniform group. That choice keeps the story clear, but it also flattens important differences.

What to watch next

The most important signal in the coming years will be whether improved classroom numbers translate into more women in engineering and leadership. Watch for changes in internship structure, the use of sponsorship programs, and whether companies publicly track promotion and pay by gender. If those practices spread, the leaks the study maps could start to close.

For now, Digital Silk’s work confirms something most people in tech already sense: progress is real but fragile. Closing the gap will require sustained, practical action by both employers and educators — not just more students in classrooms.

Sources

• prnewswire.com