In French tech, the share of women stands at 17%.
In the run-up to International Women’s Rights Day, many IT players revisit this statistic. Fewer, however, go so far as to source it.
It appears to come from one of the segments of the Gender Scan survey carried out by Global Contact, a Paris-based research and consulting firm. More precisely, from the 2022 edition. The 17% in question relate to the year 2020.
Depending on the IT players, the wording varies. Ippon Technologies states that women represent around 17% of the tech workforce in France. Meanwhile Acer asserts that 17% of technical roles in IT are held by women.
The former adds that within this sector, women occupy 10% of leadership positions. The latter notes that only 3% of high school girls choose the digital and computer science specialization.
AI, or the two sides of the coin
At Tanium, it is recalled that globally, in technology, 14% of senior executives are women. The potential of AI to “level the playing field” is highlighted as a way to reduce professional burnout—also for women who return to work. “ The advantage for women will come from organizations that use AI to strengthen the leadership pipeline rather than shrink it,” adds Melissa Bischoping, Director of Security Research.
iCIMS, a human resources software publisher, sees AI as a “powerful lever” to objectivize certain recruitment decisions, harmonize criteria and limit human biases.
Two years ago, in the margins of International Women’s Day, UNESCO also expressed hopes concerning AI. More precisely regarding open-source LLMs. Their openness could, through open access, help reduce embedded biases.
Because biases did exist. Tests on GPT-2, Llama 2 and GPT-3.5 revealed, among other things, a tendency to generate gender stereotypes. For example by associating certain concepts with “woman,” “family,” “children” and “marriage”; and with “man,” “business,” “executive,” “salary,” “career.” Or certain jobs (“driver,” “teacher,” “gardener,” “bank employee” for men; “waitress,” “housekeeper,” “model,” “prostitute” for women).
“Even slight sexist prejudices in generated content can significantly amplify inequalities in the real world,” remarked Audrey Azoulay, then Director-General of UNESCO.
From freelancing to societal perceptions, a “positive trajectory”
These inequalities are reinforced precisely because they are visible, argues Cynthia Overby, Director of Security Solutions at Rocket Software. From leadership roles to keynote speakers at major tech events, the lack of visible diversity in front of the camera “strengthens the perception that the tech industry will not welcome those who do not fit that image,” she says.
“In the 1980s, women were much more represented in IT trades, explains LeHibou (an IT freelancing platform). A shift occurred during that decade, when computing became a mass-market product,” she notes. In 2023, 14% of its freelancers were women. They were a minority, but on a “positive trajectory” (9% in 2018). Their main roles: MOA project manager, product owner, AMOA consultant, AI project manager and business analyst. Three of these careers posted in 2023 a daily rate on par with men. Yet while men tended to emphasize compensation, their female counterparts cited the choice of missions and the desire for a better work-life balance as their primary motivations for freelancing.
The same year, Ironhack (digital training) also spoke of a form of positive trajectory. By comparing two surveys on the BuzzPress France panel, it notably found that:
- 63% of French people said women could be as capable as men in digital professions (+4 points compared with 2022)
- 32% did not consider that women were not raised or educated to take an interest in these fields (+6 points)
- 49% would be willing to encourage their daughter to pursue a tech career (+7 points)
Beyond diversity, ensuring inclusion
“In a technical environment, diversity brings different perspectives and contributes to a better collective balance,” asserts Laetitia Martzolff, HR Business Partner at DEEP France (formerly DIGORA).
Stephanie Aceves, Director of product management at Tanium, goes further. She calls for attention to the “unique qualities” of women: “the ability to lead with intuition, to solve problems with a broad vision and to build a sense of community within teams.” Beyond diversified recruitment, inclusion must be guaranteed, she adds. Moreover, for the same role, there is often an expectation that women will take charge of gender issues when they are the sole representative in their team.
In some contexts, women still have to demonstrate their competence with greater intensity, confirms Céline Delaugère. This often implicit demand appears in access to funding, media visibility or decision-making positions, notes the founder of MyDataMachine. She continues: talking about women’s rights means looking concretely at their access to AI, to data and to digital infrastructures, as they shape our societies (economic models, cultural uses, power dynamics). And she calls for moving beyond analyzing women’s trajectories through narrow categories: scientist or creative, technical or artistic, rational or sensitive… This binary reading no longer matches the reality of hybrid paths.
STEM patents: the feminization rate also below 20%
According to the European Patent Office, in STEM, 16.7% of inventors named in patent applications in France between 2018 and 2022 were women. That is roughly the same as in 2013-2017 (16.4%). Val-de-Marne stands out. The rate (25.4%) is among the highest in European regions with a dense innovation ecosystem.
In mathematics and computer science, the Mines-Télécoms Institute tops the higher education establishments for the share of women in patent filings during PhD work (10%). Université Paris Sciences et Lettres dominates for later filings (8%).
Across all INPI filings between 2021 and 2023, 14% of French inventors were women. The rate reached 16% in public institutions and state-owned enterprises. Against 11% in large companies and 9% in SMEs. It hovered around 30% in the chemistry sector.
AI-generated illustration
