Girls in Tech Study on Workplaces in the Pandemic

Girls in Tech, a global nonprofit working to erase the gender gap in tech, has published result from its 2021 study “The Tech Workplace for Women in the Pandemic.” The study demonstrates the devastating effect of COVID-19 on women in the tech workforce, including the alarmingly high rate of burnout among working women with male bosses. Girls in Tech also announces new signatories to its open letter to tech leaders demanding adherence to the “Half the Board: 50/50 by 2025” pledge that calls upon corporate boardrooms to be composed of at least 50% women by Dec. 31, 2024.

“The results from our study were abundantly clear: women in technology are burned out from COVID and organizations must recognize this is at crisis-level,” said Adriana Gascoigne, Founder and CEO, Girls in Tech. “We were particularly stunned to learn the impact a supervisor’s gender has on women’s burnout rate. For this Women’s History Month, we call upon organizations to acknowledge this disparity, dig deeper to better understand the issue, and take real, meaningful action towards positive change.”

“The Tech Workplace for Women in the Pandemic” asked how Girls in Tech members nationwide are coping during the COVID-19 pandemic. In short, the survey found that male bosses are burning women out at a far greater clip than female bosses. Among the study’s top findings was that 63% of respondents with male supervisors reported feeling burned out, as compared to 44% of those with female supervisors. Furthermore, when the top most executive at the company (e.g., CEO) is male, even higher burn out rates were reported: specifically, 85% of those respondents working at organizations where the topmost executive is male report being burned out compared to just 15% when the top executive is female.

Overall, nearly 76% of respondents reported being burned out since the COVID pandemic hit in March 2020. While burn out rates are extremely high, an overwhelming percent (93%), of full-time employees say they are lucky to have a job.

As part of efforts for Women’s History Month, International Women’s Day, and Equal Pay Day, Girls in Tech board members penned an open letter to tech leaders demanding that corporate boards be composed of at least 50% women by 2025. Joining Girls in Tech board members Adriana Gascoigne (Chief Executive Officer and Founder), Sandy Carter (Chairman of the Board)*, Jonathan Abrams*, Donna Boyer*, Sastry Durvasula*, Julie Mathis*, Sanjay Mehta*, Raquel Tamez* and Alyson Welch* are new signatories Laura Drabik* (Member of the Board, Girls in Tech), Sandra Lopez* (named “Top 100 Women in Technology” by Technology Magazine, 2021), and, Brad Chase* (Half the Board Committee, Girls in Tech and Chase Global Media Group).

—
Photo Credit: Jacob Lund / Shutterstock.com