AnitaB.org’s annual Grace Hopper Celebration has crowned The New York Times Company, Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG) and ADP as 2020’s Top Companies for Women Technologists.
Top Companies for Women Technologists is reported to be the only benchmarking programme that looks specifically at technical employees and awards companies embracing accountability and making the most progress toward the equity of women. This year’s report surveyed 51 companies with more than 500,000 technologists.
“I am thrilled to honour this year’s winners who are working to rewrite the technology industry’s definition of diversity, equity and inclusion and are continuing to invest in talent at all levels across their organisations,” said AnitaB.org President and CEO Brenda Darden Wilkerson. “These companies are living examples of what it means to build a world of truly inclusive technology.”
DRIVING PROGRESS
Commenting on the award, ADP’s Chief Diversity, Inclusion and Corporate Social Responsibility Officer, Aisha Thomas-Petit stated: “We are extremely honoured to be recognised as a 2020 Top Companies Winner for Women Technologists. Representation is critical, especially in the world of technology where you’re at the crux of innovation. As we design new technology to change the world of work, ADP remains steadfast in driving better representation of women.
“Our Global Product and Technology organisation stays close to industry benchmarks, and has goals and accountability measures in place to drive progress. We have strategic external partnerships as well that cultivate recruiting pipelines. And we support philanthropic organisations that nurture the development of girls and women in the technology field at large, helping them become the formidable tech leaders they have all the potential to be.”
The respected programme helps organisations discover areas where they can improve to help build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive future. The assessment considers key factors including overall representation; representation by career level; trends in hiring, retention and advancement; leadership representation; and representation by race and gender.
GROWING FEMALE REPRESENTATION
According to AnitaB.org’s annual study, the overall representation of women technologists is growing and has increased by 2.9 percentage points since 2018. There were 28.8% female technologists in 2020, compared to 26.2% in 2019 and 25.9% the year before. “This increase is promising. But even at a consistent annual growth rate of 4.96%, it would take 12 years to achieve equal representatation,” noted the non-profit.
This year, there was growth in women technologist representation at all career levels among the Top Companies participants. While female representation increased at a steady pace across all levels from 2018 to 2019, growth at the executive level increased substantially. It actually rose +4.3 percentage points, surpassing the representation of senior-level women technologists.
The overall representation of women technologists increased by 3.5 percentage points over the past two years. But according to this year’s findings, women technologists are hired disproportionately at entry-level. In 2020, women and men left organisations, both voluntarily and involuntarily, at almost equal rates. That’s a big improvement over last year, which saw women leaving more than men by 1.3 percentage points. In the past three years, more women have been promoted than men. However, the majority of women’s promotions have been in mid-level positions, while men have been promoted into senior levels at a higher rate than women.
Click here for the full results of the 2020 Top Companies for Women Technologists.
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