Sep 07 2022
Management

Report Reveals Barriers for Women in IT

Logitech discusses its partnership with Girls Who Code and the work the tech company is doing to promote equity.

A 2022 report from Logitech and Girls Who Code looks at the barriers faced by women in IT and the forces driving their success. The organizations surveyed 400 individuals in tech and IT positions with the goal of understanding and addressing the barriers women face in tech and ultimately encouraging more girls at the K–12 level to pursue STEM careers.

“What surprised us was the importance of early cheerleaders and role models,” says Delphine Donné, Logitech’s general manager of creativity and productivity. Per the report, 60 percent of women who studied computer science were encouraged by a parent or teacher, and 38 percent said their interest developed in high school.

“Something I had not realized before the survey was that the percentage of female computer scientists is smaller now than it was in 1995,” Donné adds.

The partnership between Logitech and Girls Who Code stems from the tech company’s desire to reach more women and increase their involvement in computer science fields. The company hopes to highlight the imbalance between men and women in tech careers via this report, Donné says.

Delphine Donne Logitech
Something I had not realized before the survey was that the percentage of female computer scientists is smaller now than it was in 1995.”

Delphine Donné General Manager of Creativity and Productivity, Logitech

How Logitech Focuses on Equity in the Workplace

There are several ways tech companies can work toward equity, according to Donné. The first is through engaging with organizations like Girls Who Code to help educate girls at the K–12 level. Companies should also work to recruit female candidates for tech and engineering roles.

“We have to be patient, we have to search harder and we have to ask our recruiters to really bring more choices, more diversity to the recruitment process,” she says.

Additionally, companies should look at the products they offer and at their audience. When Donné started working at Logitech, she says, she pointed out to her team that her own hands were too small to use the company’s vertical mouse. Recently, it rolled out the Logitech Lift, a vertical ergonomic mouse.

“We actually identified that women are most subjected to pain in the neck and arm, and it’s related to various things,” she says. “Sometimes, it can be that the equipment they use is not adapted for them; it’s too wide, or the mouse is too big.”

Donné says she hopes the report opens the eyes of schools and tech companies to the reality of inequity in the workplace. “It’s a wake-up call. We need to do something now. We’re all in it.”

KEEP READING: Tech reignites IT leaders and educators in K–12 school districts.

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