{"id":76273,"date":"2026-02-04T15:56:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/889398831"},"modified":"2026-02-04T15:56:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:56:31","slug":"uk-economy-loses-billions-by-locking-women-out-of-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/uk-economy-loses-billions-by-locking-women-out-of-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"UK economy loses billions by locking women out of tech"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The UK economy could stand to lose out on more than \u00a310bn of growth over the next decade if current trends locking women out of tech roles, a new report has claimed.<\/p>\n

Research from the City of London Corporation\u2019s Women Pivoting to Digital Taskforce looked at mid-career women and found that rigid hiring practices in the technology sector were preventing them from taking on digital roles.<\/p>\n

According to the task force, more than 12,100 digital vacancies went unfilled across the tech, finance and professional services sectors in 2024, costing an estimated \u00a31bn in unmet economic growth.<\/p>\n

The report found that certain CV screening practices were sidelining mid-career women seeking tech-focused roles. These included penalties for caring-related career gaps, narrow definitions of relevant experience and bias in automated recruitment tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs AI and automation accelerate, the risk of exclusion grows,\u201d commented Elizabeth Anderson, chief executive of the Digital Poverty Alliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen who are already overlooked by rigid hiring processes are also more likely to be displaced by technological change, and less likely to be offered the reskilling needed to stay connected to the digital economy. When that happens at scale, exclusion becomes systemic leaving talent unused, vacancies unfilled, and firms exposed to significant costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report notes that discouraging women from retraining in roles related to AI and other new technologies reinforces an already problematic skills gap.<\/p>\n

Reskilling women represents one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to close digital vacancies, protect roles from AI disruption, and retain institutional knowledge,\u201d said AND Digital VP of product development Linda Benjamin.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut progress cannot stop at hiring alone. Organisations must also expand access to sponsorship and create fair leadership pathways that enable women to pivot into emerging areas like AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… locking women out of tech<\/span> roles, a new report … hiring practices in the technology<\/span> sector were preventing them … vacancies went unfilled across the tech<\/span>, finance and professional services … sidelining mid-career women seeking tech<\/span>-focused roles. These included …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}