Women in IT : Career evolution & best paying jobs

IT has traditionally been viewed as a sector dominated by men. Thankfully, this is no longer the case with the ever-increasing demand for developers, CIO/CTOs and other technology-literate professionals, as well as the democratisation of studying IT through Massive Open Online Courses, women have carved-out a small but highly performing niche in the IT professional landscape.

To celebrate International Women's Day, we have analysed data from 4,700 IT professionals working in the UK to find out if women are as successful as men with roles in IT careers, and which are the top paying jobs for women in this field. Data shows that while women are actually quicker to rise through the ranks of the industry, they represent a tiny fraction of the total professional population working in IT.

Is it easier to be promoted as a male IT professional?

Gender	Senior Developer	Manager	Architect	CTO, Head of IT
Men	9 years	12 years	13 years	15.5 years
Women	8 years	9 years	11 years	13 years

Based on 4,750 IT professionals working in the UK

Surprised?

In IT jobs, female professionals are promoted earlier than men, reaching Manager level a full three years faster than their male counterparts, and as little as 2.5 years faster for CTO positions.

A tiny proportion of population...

This positive trend is dwarfed by the fact that there are very few female professionals who work in IT (see table below), with only 6% of women Senior Developers.

Proportion of women in IT by job title

Gender	Senior Developer	Manager	Architect	CTO, Head of IT
Men	94%	92%	95%	93%
Women	6%	8%	5%	7%

Best paying jobs for female IT professionals

Activity	Median salary for female professionals
IT Senior Management	£81,000
Database Administration	£63,500
Product Management	£61,000
Software Development	£52,000

Based on 145 UK female IT professionals with 10-15 years' experience

Gender pay gap eradicated by high demand:

Due to a dearth of IT & Software development professionals, they are currently being offered well above average salaries, and women are no exception : female IT professionals can earn more than £80,000 per year after 10 years in the job.

Pick your sector wisely:

Predictably Financial Services will pay women in IT more than other industries, with some pay packages coming very close to front office banking jobs'. This trend is expected to continue as Financial Institutions are investing in digitalising their businesses to keep up with Fintech companies' new offerings and product developments.

Wanted: Female IT professionals...at last!

The ongoing need for competent and skilled IT professionals is proving to be a blessing for women. The demand is such that it is breaking down traditional professional barriers which have held women back from being promoted in favour of their male counterparts. The missing piece to this pleasing picture is a growth in absolute numbers of female IT professionals, which we are likely to witness in the coming years as more and more female IT graduates come to the job market.

 

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