Digital sector: where are the women?

Syntec Numérique, as a member ofOPIIEC, is pleased to announce the publication of a study on the attractiveness of the digital and engineering professions for women in France.

Carried out among high school and university students, employees and companies in the sector (Digital, Engineering, Research and Consulting, Events), the survey revealed a33% feminization ratein the digital sector, compared to 53% for all sectors combined. If no action is taken to increase this rate, the number of women trained in the sector’s professions will be lower than the needs of companies; the proportions are even likely to fall.

The aim of this new study is therefore tounderstand the obstacles encountered, the specific motivations of young women and girls, and their opinion, whether favorable or unfavorable, towards these professions, and thus to improve the representation of women in the digital sector through :

• identifying the reasons for the low level of attractiveness, andthe factors that influence whether or not young women choose to pursue careers in the digital sector;
• measure career prospects and assess the number of young women likely to enter the industry by 2020;
• define the levers for action toencourage their orientation towards these professions, andrecommend an action plan for the branch to increase the proportion of women in these professions.

To date, the survey has identified six major factors that explain the ecosystem’s low attractiveness:

• A highly gendered image of society:the digital world is generally considered to be a “male” sector, and long-standing clichés tend to persist;
• a vision ofscientific studies limited to mathematics: this subject is in fact perceived as rather difficult by young people, who believe that digital professions will only be accessible to them if they excel in this field;
• astereotyped viewof certain training courses(for example, the BacSTI2Dis still perceived by many people – both young people and prescribers – as a course reserved for men);
• a lack of understanding of the opportunities offered by digital technology andengineering: young people, and women in particular, don’t see the value of the end product (a connected object, a mobile application, a website…) and therefore reduce their missions to certain preconceived ideas, such as “making lines of code” or “tinkering behind the computer”;
• an ignorance oftheindustry‘s professions: only half of the high school girls surveyed were aware of the different job families in the digital and engineering sectors;
• a lack of awareness of the companies thatmake up the ecosystem: large corporate customers are well identified by the general public, while the industry’s companies, which are service providers, are not.