Women in Digital: A study into gender representation in today’s thriving digital industry

Here at The Candidate we are excited to announce the launch of our latest piece of research, 'Women in Digital', a study into the gender representation in today's thriving digital industry.

Our report looks at how women are paving their way in the traditionally male-dominated industry, the extent of the male/female divide, whether salaries are gender neutral, and the state of flexible working and benefit policies.

By looking at 150 digital businesses, we uncovered that there are nearly twice as many men currently working in the sector than women. Our research also found there is a severe lack of females in management roles, with 156 per cent more men taking up these jobs. The situation is more severe at senior management level, with just 18 out of the 150 businesses involved in the research headed up by women.

We found that 'soft skill' jobs tend to be favoured by women, with the top three roles being in marketing and social media (27%), public relations and communications (18%), and account management (14%). Whilst the more 'technical' roles such as search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC), were taken by men.

The report features experiences and views from stakeholders in the industry including; Head of i-LAB North MediaCom, Nicola Marsh, Head of Social Media at TwentySix Digital, Kristal Ireland and Managing Director of Manchester Digital, Katie Gallagher. We have including some excellent progressive case studies of digital companies that aim to tackle inequalities in the industry.

If the weeks we spent collating this research has told us anything, it's that digital is an exciting, dynamic, and ever-changing industry to be in; jobs in digital are now hugely desirable and sought after. Compiling this report, and speaking to a number of very successful women in digital, has left us hugely optimistic about the future.

We hope that our report goes some way in unveiling some of the issues that might be holding back this sector that has such huge potential. And that it has an influence on new initiatives such at the Northern Powerhouse, to make sure we are feeding the industry what it really needs.

For more information on the digital sector in the UK take a look at some of our previous research reports;