Women in tech teams: Diversity is doing better

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The importance of diversity in teams has long been proven. Studies indicate that diverse teams deliver significantly better results. According to a study by McKinsey, companies with a diverse management team achieve up to 62 percent better results. Nevertheless, the question remains: why does it seem so difficult to form diverse teams, especially in the tech industry? If companies want to achieve more diversity in their tech teams step by step, the journey begins with an understanding of where the problem and the challenges lie (see Figure 1).

Simonetta Batteiger

Simonetta Batteiger coaches and advises executives and managers in product and tech leadership roles. She is personally passionate about promoting diversity in tech leadership roles.

Then it is important to develop an idea and vision of what the goal of diversity in the team could look like. This requires ideas on how to work together differently. For example, by rewarding a real change in behavior in recruiting, promotions, salary negotiations, speaking up in meetings, actively shaping a sense of belonging in the team or in project specifications. Surveys of affected groups, suitable metrics and active intervention if the actual behavior does not change are supportive. In the course of this process, all those involved should constantly evaluate milestones achieved and celebrate successes. If the targeted diversity and equality goals are not achieved, this means taking a step back to brainstorming in order to initiate further behavioral changes.

Recognizing causes and tackling challenges

One of the biggest challenges is the existing corporate culture in many tech companies, which is often characterized by male-dominated structures. This culture can subtly or obviously signal that women are not welcome or supported in these environments. However, these signals often start much earlier:

• When girls hear from an early age that math or programming is "difficult" and "something for boys". When they are given a pink unicorn instead of a toy robot for self-programming (and want one because the other girls in kindergarten think it's cool too).
• When female students in mathematics or computer science, for example, are told by their male lecturers that it is unlikely that many women will complete this course, even though the statistics do not provide any reliable figures: The percentage of successful graduates in STEM subjects is higher for female students (69.3 percent) than for their male counterparts (64.9 percent).
• If young women know few or no role models and therefore cannot even imagine a career in technical professions. I myself would never have thought that I would work in various management roles in product management in the software industry after my business studies. In my youth, programming was almost exclusively done by men. There were no female math, physics, chemistry or computer science teachers at my math and science high school. And I didn't know a single woman in my environment who worked in a tech company.
• When I hear young female software engineers still asking at a panel at a "Women in Tech" event in 2024 whether anyone in the audience knows women who successfully balance children and a career in tech, while this question doesn't seem to arise at all for men in tech professions. Then it becomes obvious that even in the minds of these young women who have already successfully started a job as a software engineer, images and assumptions have already been solidified that it will be "particularly difficult" for them as women.