There are nearly twice as many men in digital as there are women according to research conducted by a digital recruitment agency based in Manchester. The Women in Digital report found that three times as many men are taking management roles in the digital sector.

The Candidate’s report also found that only 18 out of the 150 businesses who took part in the research were headed up by women, an indicator of the traditionally male-dominated nature of the industry.

Undeniably a sector for the younger generations, there is hope that the greater number of women in junior digital roles will eventually rise to senior roles. The report also looked at whether salaries are gender neutral, the state of flexible working and benefit policies affecting gender equality.

Brian Matthews, managing partner at The Candidate, says, “We were keen to do research into a topic that could really benefit the digital sector by opening its eyes to some of the fundamental issues affecting the industry. We know there is a lack of professionals with digital skills, especially in the North, but we wanted to find out whether a gender gap might be a contributing factor. What we discovered in our findings is that we could potentially be alienating women and discouraging them from taking up a career in digital, thus missing out on a big proportion of talent.”

Over the last 10 years, apprenticeships and work experience opportunities have helped pave the way for a more diverse range of people to enter the digital industry. The implementation of good flexible working schemes and, crucially, addressing gender pay gaps will also help to make the industry more accessible for women which in turn will help to tackle the shortage of skilled talent affecting the digital industry.

Sam Noble, marketing director at Koozai, says, "If you go back five to ten years and look at the digital industry, it was perceived to be very technical, but nowadays digital is more about marketing and I think this has encouraged more females to join the industry and get involved."

The Candidate found that women tend to favour soft skill jobs, with the top three roles being marketing and social media (27%), public relations and communications (18%), and account management (14%). The more technical roles, such as search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC), are usually filled by men.