Dear Tech Industry: How About Keeping Women?
Tech has a female talent retention issue
“You know Dio, you have a lot of experience, but we have some concerns about your job history. You’ve been in several positions for short term — sometimes a year or less — but we want someone loyal, willing to stay long term through good and bad because we are a family.”
That’s what a recruiter told me over the phone at the end of 2018. I was interviewing for an engineering position.
Well, it is true. The longest I’ve stayed in a job is five years. So I got curious about this phenomenon.
Tech has a female talent retention issue. You are not surprised, are you? Reports conclude that one reason for the lack of diversity is that many companies become revolving doors for women and other minorities.
56% of technical women leave the industry at the mid-level point, twice the quit rate for men.
No one quits a job because the environment and growth opportunities are fantastic, right? According to a 2008 research by the Center for Work-Life Policy, the female talent pipeline in the private sector is deep and rich. Over 70% of us love our job, 65% find it intellectually challenging. And yet, 56% of technical women leave the industry at the mid-level point, twice the quit rate for men.
That was a study from 2008, but things haven’t changed. As reported by a 2020–2021 survey from TrustRadius, 57% of women in tech feel burned out versus 36% of men. They also quote a New York Times’ finding that mothers were three times as likely as fathers to have left the workforce.
With such a large percentage of mid-level female professionals quitting, no wonder we are not represented at the high levels. A July 2021 article from Investment Monitor perfectly describes this leaking talent pipeline:
Having invested in women as they enter junior positions, employers appear to frequently waste this investment by failing to retain this talent further up the ladder.
But why? The Kapor Center conducted a study in 2017 that found people in tech are almost twice as likely to leave due to unfair treatment than being recruited away by another employer. The study explored four categories of unfair treatment, behaviors, and experiences:
- Unfair people management practices
- Stereotyping
- Sexual Harassment
- Bullying/Hostility
Employees from all backgrounds left due to unfairness, but workplace experiences differ dramatically by race, gender, and sexual orientation. And yes, women of all backgrounds experienced and observed significantly more unfair treatment overall than men.
The study also found that 30% of underrepresented women of color are passed over for promotion, higher than any other group. It is not the only reason for quitting, but it is pretty prevalent.
Almost one-third of underrepresented women of color are passed over for promotion, higher than any other group.
Let me share another personal story:
Years ago, I joined a new team. There was another high senior-level woman in my department, but I was the first woman of color. They gave me the title of Software Developer and said this was standard for engineers of all levels. After a few months, I found out there were indeed different titles, and mine was a junior level one. My pay was also that of a junior engineer.
My team had three open positions. I lead the design of the interview process for these hires, and we selected three male engineers. While each of them had half my experience and accomplishments, they got the title of Senior Engineer. At that point, I went to my manager and HR to request they adjusted my title and pay.
It took four months, but they finally corrected my title, and I got a pay rise. HR reviewed my responsibilities, performance, and previous experience and concluded my title should match other people doing the same work. They sent me a gift basket. The CEO wrote me a letter saying how much I deserved it. Even a team member said he was surprised I didn’t have that title already.
I was inspired. The company took the time to listen and correct my situation. I loved what I was doing and couldn’t be happier.
But it didn’t last long. Before the title change, my manager would praise my performance and be happy with me. But immediately after, he seemed to have changed his mind. For the following year, he was not supportive and kept telling me I wasn’t doing enough or quality work.
For me, it feels they didn’t correctly evaluate my experience when they hired me. And my manager didn’t like it when I stood up for myself. It exacerbated my fear and paranoia of being tokenized.
I quit at the end of that year.
It is about uncomfortable, big, cultural, and environmental shifts.
People from underrepresented and diverse backgrounds face unique challenges. Many companies want to fix this and make impactful changes on a global scale. Research has found that a systemic change model achieves this goal.
It’s about uncomfortable, big, cultural, and environmental shifts. Below is the tested and documented model by the National Center for Women in Technology. Retention is just a piece of the puzzle, but it is essential.
Data transparency is a foundational step. In that area, I want to give a shout-out to Intel, the only company I know that publishes retention statistics (here’s the 2018–2019 report and the 2020–2021 one). Intel also publishes an employee pay disclosure. I dream of a time when federal laws require this kind of transparency.
Back to my initial story when they told me I jump around too much: I withdrew my application for that position. I am sure I wouldn’t have been happy there.
So I want to ask all of you recruiters and hiring managers — don’t jump to conclusions when you see a candidate that didn’t stay very long in that previous job. Also, how about we keep women around?
Do you have similar stories or know about other research and statistics? Let me know!
