Policy isn’t practice: Boys clubs and gender equity in the tech sector

As employers compete for talent and AI reshapes the nature of early-career hiring, new research has shown that improved representation and policies are not denting what is clearly an ingrained culture problem in the tech sector.

In light of recent Women in Digital research that found 43 per cent of entry-level technology workers believe there is an entrenched boys’ club in their workplace, a proportion that rises to 66 per cent of those considering leaving their jobs, Women in Digital founder and CEO Holly Hunt is reflecting on the apparent disconnect between policy and reality or, as she calls it, “leadership and the coal face”.

“Leaders set policy, managers execute, and employees experience. The translation of intent to reality is where the rubber hits the road; and it’s not always perfectly translated,” Hunt said.

Hunt noted that the research also revealed that 73 per cent of men believe their workplace offers equal opportunities for career advancement, compared to 56 per cent of women, highlighting that the same policy can have vastly different interpretations “depending on where you sit in the organisation” rather than groups actually having different policies.

Asked whether the presence of employers on the floor or in the office makes a difference to culture and practice, Hunt explained that the impact is less determined by the number of hours an employer is physically present, and more by their intention.

“A leader can be in the office five days a week and still miss everything happening in a Teams thread at 6pm, or in the informal, after-hours conversations that flexible workers are structurally excluded from,” she said.

Hunt added that exclusion and perception gaps can result in a mid-career gap whereby many drop off when faced with exclusion and unmotivated leaders that don’t follow up on policy.

“What I’d tell employers is that ‘being on the floor’ is a proxy for something more direct: actively seeking out the experiences of all employees, including those who aren’t in the room. That means deliberately checking in with remote and part-time employees, not just noticing and connecting with who’s visible”.

Hunt explained that the tech sector is especially deficient in reporting and complaint systems, which she explained points to a structural and cultural problem. According to the research, the presence of formal systems does not eliminate issues in reporting, suggesting “a confidence gap rather than an access gap”.

“People know where the complaints portal is. What they’re less sure of is whether raising something will actually change anything or whether it will cost them more than it helps,” Hunt said.

She explained that this can manifest in disengagement, quiet quitting, or an “us vs them” attitude that can further erode team culture.

Hunt urged employers to be transparent about the complaints process, “in aggregate if not case by case”, and reinforce manager training practices, “because most issues are raised informally to a manager long before they ever reach HR, and if that manager doesn’t recognise it or know how to escalate it, the formal system never even gets tested”.

In this way, managers are also encouraged to build structured ways to hear from people rather than simply promoting an open door policy, focus on outcomes rather than intentions, and address the perception gap between men and women by bringing men in actively to the conversation.

“If the intent is to build a workplace that lives up to the intent its policies set, then our recommendation to employers has consistently been to audit flexible and remote work outcomes by gender and seniority, and to make sure performance reviews reward impact over presence.”

“Otherwise ‘being present’ becomes something employees perform for, rather than a genuine challenge for leaders to notice what’s actually happening.”

Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?
Make HR Leader a preferred news source on Google.