The wave of layoffs that took place at the end of 2022 in the tech industry disproportionately affected women, worsening the already existing gender gap in the sector.
Mari Rouss Villegas, director of diversity and inclusion at Hogan Lovells Mexico, explained that although the companies argue that the layoffs were necessary to reduce costs due to the global economic slowdown, in reality they end up affecting those who already face barriers to entry, such as women.
“The tech industry must redouble its efforts to ensure equal opportunity and an inclusive work environment, and explain the reasons behind these high layoff rates,” Villegas said.
According to data from Layoffs.fyi, about 45 percent of laid-off workers in the US tech sector were women, highlighting mass layoffs at companies like Twitter, Meta and Microsoft.
The layoffs, in general, affected 102,943 workers, more than double that of December and more than five times that of a year earlier, according to the report by the firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Companies including Microsoft, Amazon and Meta cut thousands of jobs last month in an attempt to recoup costs from falling demand for their services.
For Mari Rouss Villegas, this percentage is alarming considering the already low representation of women in the technology industry.
“It is shocking to think that such a large number of women have been laid off, especially considering that many tech and digital companies are now run by women.”
However, a study carried out by Deloitte in 2022 reveals that the existing gender gap is further aggravated, since women hold less than a third of jobs and less than 25 percent are in technical and leadership positions. in the sector.
Hogan Lovells’ management indicated that, despite advances in diversity and inclusion, women in the technology industry continue to be the most affected by mass layoffs.
“The tech industry must redouble its efforts to ensure equal opportunity and an inclusive work environment, and explain the reasons behind these high layoff rates.”
As a consequence, Rouss explained that these layoffs can be perceived as a negative signal for investors, since the lack of diversity in the industry can affect products and services, which can be skewed due to the lack of a gender perspective.
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“It is important that women are not left behind in the field of technology and that greater inclusion is promoted to avoid disparities in knowledge in a sector where men predominate.”
One possible explanation for this discrepancy, Mari Rouss pointed out, is that the cuts especially affect departments where women prevail, while those where men tend to be more represented are less affected by layoffs.
2023-06-03 08:00:00
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