Closing the gender gap

Research has shown that the biggest hurdle many face in their careers is the broken rung’.

- Leonie Stanley

The telecommunications industry is built on the brilliance of women. Dr Marian Croak invented Voice over IP technology. Dr Shirley Jackson's work made the touch tone telephone, caller ID and call waiting technology possible and Hedy Lamar is responsible for the technology that Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS are based on.

But despite these pioneers, the tech industry remains male-dominated.

Deloitte estimates that women accounted for less than a third of the total workforce and 25% of technical roles in large tech companies in 2022.

In South Africa, World Bank data shows that 38.43% of tertiary graduates in ICT programmes are women.

A 2020 report by Accenture and Girls Who Code found that half of women in tech roles in the United States leave them by the age of 35.

Despite this, just 38% of human resources leaders identified building a more inclusive culture as a way to retain women in tech roles.