More than 20,000 black women are ‘missing’ from the UK IT industry, according to a new report from Coding Black Females (CBF) and BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.
The three-part study analysed Labour Force Survey data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS); conducted in depth interviews to create a picture of the prevailing inclusivity challenges; and sought views from over 350 black women working in the UK technology sector.
After analysing the data, the report found that despite Black women making up 1.8% of the UK workforce, they make up only 0.7% of technology workers in the UK. Twenty thousand Black women would need to be recruited in addition to the 12,000 already working in IT to fill the gap.