Diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones. Gender diversity in particular has positive effects on radical innovation, a criterion that is crucial for tech companies. At Bayer, we strongly believe that the best teams are made up of diverse talents — that the collective sum of individual differences is a significant factor of Bayer’s success. However, reaching gender parity in IT is a challenge that most companies deem infeasible.
Two Ways to Improve Gender Balance in Tech
Start by offering more interdisciplinary roles and career paths.
December 15, 2021
HBR Staff/Tim Robberts/andsem/Getty Images
Summary.
Building a gender-diverse team has proven to have significant benefits for the business, yet it remains a significant challenge for most IT organizations. To find a solution, we have analyzed 64,461 responses from Stack Overflow’s developers survey. The analysis focused on the gender ratios for the different roles in IT. The results have shown that the interdisciplinary roles attract more women than the roles with dry-coding nature. From the analysis results, we recommend that IT organizations take the following two actions to improve the gender-gap: create new jobs with interdisciplinary nature and offer development paths for women having the interdisciplinary roles to the dry-coding jobs.
New!
HBR Learning
Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
How to build a better, more just workplace.
Learn More & See All Courses
New!
HBR Learning
HBR Learning
Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
How to build a better, more just workplace.