Women in Tech Report 2019
Inspiring Women in Tech

New Zealand prides itself on its record of women’s rights and representation. We were the first nation to give women the right to vote, and in the 126 years since, our country has made significant progress in ensuring gender equality.

However, there is still much work to be done in our business sector if New Zealand is to live up to its reputation as a society that recognises, promotes and enjoys the full benefits of equal representation for women.

For the technology sector in particular, the latest MYOB Business Monitor research makes sobering reading. Nearly half of the industry’s female leaders have personally experienced gender bias during their career, just 25% of local technology businesses have equal representation in their leadership teams (41% to 60% of their leaders are female), only one in ten tech businesses work to actively address discrimination and less than half pay their female employees the same as men in the same role.

0% of women in the SME tech sector have experienced gender bias in the workplace.

Barriers to achieving gender diversity

The perceived barriers to achieving greater gender diversity differ for men and women. While both genders believe the tech industry lacks appeal for women, female business owners feel more strongly about other barriers – specifically, the lack of female representation in senior leadership, the industry’s reputation for gender bias, the lack of female role models, and biased recruitment techniques.

In your opinion, what are the barriers, if any, to achieving greater representation of women in New Zealand’s technology industries?

29%
23%

Lack of appeal of industry to females

24%
13%

Biased recruitment techniques

35%
18%

Lack of female representation in senior leadership

19%
15%

Lack of commitment from tech companies to achieve gender diversity

33%
16%

Reputation of gender bias within industry

8%
11%

Lack of access to STEM education/training

33%
19%

Lack of female role models in the industry

20%
24%

There are no barriers

  • Women in tech
  • Men in tech
Only 0% of New Zealand businesses believe gender diversity is important to their business.

Women in leadership

Women in business are missing from leadership teams. While more than a third of all SMEs have balanced leadership teams (41% to 60% female), just a quarter of the technology industry report the same. In contrast, nearly three fifths of the tech SME sector (57%) have majority male leadership teams (0% to 40% female).

Businesses with gender neutral leadership teams (41% to 60% of their leaders are female)

34% of all SMEs

25% of technology SMEs

Businesses with leadership teams predominantly made up of women (61% to 100% of their leaders are female)

12% of all SMEs

15% of technology SMEs

Businesses with leadership teams predominantly made up of men (0% to 40% of their leaders are female)

53% of all SMEs

57% of technology SMEs

Gender bias

Gender bias is more commonly experienced by employees in the technology sector. While more than a third (36%) of female SME owner/operators reported experiencing gender bias in the workplace, nearly half (46%) of female SME owner/operators from the tech sector said the same.

Women who have experienced gender bias in the workplace

36% of women in SME sector

46% of women in SME tech sector

Men who have experienced gender bias in the workplace

14% of men in SME sector

17% of men in SME tech sector

Women who have witnessed gender bias in the workplace

42% of women in SME sector

46% of women in SME tech sector

Men who have witnessed gender bias in the workplace

24% of men in SME sector

30% of men in SME tech sector

Embracing gender diversity

Only a fifth (21%) of New Zealand businesses believe gender diversity is important to their business. While nearly two fifths (38%) of female-owned technology businesses said gender diversity was important to them, less than a quarter (23%) of male-owned technology businesses said the same.

Business owners who believe gender diversity is important to their business

25% of female-owned businesses

18% of male-owned businesses

38% of female-owned technology businesses

23% of male-owned technology businesses

Only half of New Zealand’s SME sector provide equal pay for men and women in the same role. This is also the case for New Zealand’s technology SME sector.

Businesses that provide equal pay for men and women in the same role

50% of SMEs

48% of technology SMEs

Tech companies are more likely to provide flexible work hours in support of gender diversity than general SMEs. More than two fifths (43%) of technology SME business owners said they offer their staff flexible work hours as a policy to build gender diversity and inclusion.

Businesses that provide flexible work hours

36% of SMEs

43% of technology SMEs

Only one in ten SMEs in the tech sector have anti-discrimination policies or rules in place to stop gender bias.

Businesses with anti-discrimination policies or rules

18% of SMEs

10% of technology SMEs

While technology SMEs are less likely to use anti-discrimination policies or rules to stop gender bias, they are more likely to adopt equality-focused recruitment techniques to build gender diversity in the workplace.

Businesses with equality-focused recruitment techniques

18% of SMEs

23% of technology SMEs

Positively, policies to assist in building gender diversity are more commonly used by technology businesses than other SMEs. Just one in ten tech companies report no policies, while nearly a quarter (24%) of all SMEs said the same.

Businesses that do not have any policies to assist in building gender diversity

24% of SMEs

10% of technology SMEs

Only 0% of technology SMEs have
anti-discrimination policies in place.

The benefits

According to SME owners, gender diversity policies and practices help attract new staff and talent; retain existing staff; improve company performance; and fulfil their company values. Only a quarter (24% of all SMEs and 26% of technology SMEs) said gender diversity policies had no benefit – or weren’t important to their business.

Gender diversity policies help in attracting new staff

36% of SMEs

36% of technology SMEs

Gender diversity policies help to fulfil company values

22% of SMEs

18% of technology SMEs

Gender diversity policies help in retaining existing staff

32% of SMEs

36% of technology SMEs

Gender diversity policies are not important or needed

24% of SMEs

26% of technology SMEs

Gender diversity policies improve company performance

30% of SMEs

28% of technology SMEs

The challenges

Technology businesses find it more difficult to improve gender diversity in the workplace than other SMEs. Only 14% of all SMEs said they find it difficult to improve gender diversity, while nearly a quarter (23%) of technology businesses said the same.

It is difficult to improve gender diversity in the workplace

14% of SMEs

23% of technology SMEs

While only 14% of businesses find it hard to improve the gender balance in their workplace, just 16% find it easy, simple or straightforward. One quarter said it is reasonably straightforward.

It is easy to improve gender diversity in the workplace

16% of SMEs

16% of technology SMEs

Where do we sit?

As a developed Western nation with mostly gender-neutral ideals, New Zealand is one of the world’s leading countries with regards to gender diversity and equality. Among SMEs, nearly a third believe New Zealand is better than other OECD countries when it comes to gender diversity in the workplace. Just 12% believe New Zealand is worse.

New Zealand is better than other OECD countries when it comes to gender diversity in the workplace

29% of all SMEs

34% of technology SMEs

New Zealand is worse than other OECD countries when it comes to gender diversity in the workplace

12% of all SMEs

13% of technology SMEs

To ensure a sustainable, profitable and more inclusive tech workplace for all New Zealanders – now and in the future – we need to take action. We need to look deeply into the data, understand the reasons why women are being underpaid, under-represented and discriminated against.

And, as an industry, it is not enough just to ask the question, we must work to find the answers. Re-thinking how we educate our young people will be critical, as we work to expose more women and young girls to the industry early on in the education cycle. It’s also important for every industry to promote and champion the female business leaders – both old and young – who are already striving for change and tackling the big issues within their own organisations.

It’s a massive undertaking – one that will require the cooperation and support of industry, education, government and community. However, if we can work together to promote the importance of diversity in the workplace and set achievable goals, we can build a technology sector worth celebrating on the world stage and set a precedent for communities everywhere.

Ingrid

Ingrid Cronin-Knight
MYOB NZ Country Manager

Download the report here.

Women in Tech Report 2019

About MYOB

MYOB is a leading provider of online business management solutions. The leading technology company makes business life easier for approximately 1.2 million businesses across Australia and New Zealand by simplifying accounting, payroll, tax, practice management, CRM, job costing, inventory and more. MYOB is committed to challenging traditional gender roles and aims to raise awareness of gender equality in technology – and the wider workplace – by starting conversations, addressing unconscious bias, hosting events and building partnerships.

MYOB has a strong representation of women across the business (43%) and in its Senior Leadership Team (44%). It is making a contribution to the improved representation of women in technology through initiatives such as: DevelopHer, offering paid scholarships to women who are changing careers or looking to re-enter the workforce; targeting the hiring of women into more than 40% of entry level engineering roles; and actively seeking opportunities to transfer female leaders from other areas into technology teams.

In 2017 MYOB completed its first gender pay-gap analysis and it continues to focus on this area with regular reviews, to ensure no pay-gap exists between men and women in equivalent positions. CEO Tim Reed has continued his active support through his membership of the Male Champions of Change initiative, ensuring that commitments are delivered within MYOB.

For more information, visit www.myob.com/nz or follow @MYOB on Twitter.

About the MYOB Business Monitor

The MYOB Business Monitor survey of over 1,000 small to medium sized businesses across New Zealand examines the current performance of the SME sector as well as the pressures it faces. The latest survey was conducted in March 2019.

Carried out by Colmar Brunton, the survey sample includes 220 technology-related companies (IT services, software development, digital marketing, web development and others), as well as responses from 383 female business owners and 625 male business owners.