• Swindon & Wiltshire Tech
• Tuesday October 13 2026

More than 500,000 women ‘missing’ from UK tech as progress stalls

More than half a million women are ‘missing’ from the UK’s technology workforce, according to new research from Swindon-headquartered BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

Women account for just 22 per cent of UK IT specialists, unchanged between 2024 and 2025 and ending several years of slow improvement.

BCS says 535,000 more women would be working in IT if female representation matched the wider UK workforce, where women make up 49 per cent of those in employment.

The findings, published on Ada Lovelace Day, come as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in businesses and public services, raising concerns about whose perspectives shape the technology being built.

Women in tech are also more likely than men to hold higher education qualifications but remain less likely to reach management. Some 78 per cent of female IT specialists held a degree or other higher education qualification in 2025, compared with 72 per cent of men.

Yet just 38 per cent of women in IT had managerial or supervisory responsibilities, against 41 per cent of men. Among full-time employees, women earned 10 per cent less per hour than male colleagues.

The gender imbalance is sharpest in engineering. Women made up just 7 per cent of IT engineers and 8 per cent of telecoms engineers between 2021 and 2025, compared with 34 per cent of IT project and programme managers and 32 per cent of IT operations technicians.

Regional gaps are also stark. Women represented only 17 per cent of IT specialists in the East Midlands, the lowest share in the UK, followed by the North East at 18 per cent. Wales had the highest representation at 26 per cent.

Anne-Marie Imafidon, Government Women in Tech Envoy and Chair of the Women in Tech Taskforce, said representation alone was not enough.

She said: “Lasting progress depends on culture change. Far too many hostile environments exist which limit retention, progression and our capacity for innovation and growth.

“Building a more inclusive technology profession is not simply about improving outcomes for women, but about ensuring that the technology shaping our society benefits from the widest possible range of talent, experience and perspective.”

Sharron Gunn, chief executive of BCS, said women remained “dramatically under-represented” among the people building the UK’s digital future.

She said: “If we want technology, and more and more AI, to be trusted and work for everyone, we need the widest possible range of talent and perspectives involved in creating it.”

Jo Stansfield, chair of BCS Women, which is marking its 25th anniversary, said the findings were “sobering”.

She added: “As AI becomes ever more embedded in our daily lives, work and opportunities, the need for diverse voices to shape its development has never been greater.”

BCS analysed Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey data for the report

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