Research Reports

Author: Heather Foust-Cummings, Laura Sabattini, Nancy Carter

Published: February 2008

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In its latest landmark report on the status of women in technology, Catalyst looks closely at how women are faring in the high-tech sector and technical fields in general. In 2005, Catalyst partnered with ISR (subsequently Towers Perrin-ISR), to more fully address and understand women’s talent management at technology companies. Catalyst also fielded a subsequent study in 2007 to examine drivers of satisfaction, retention, and advancement among women in technology.

• Supervisory relationships.
• Fairness and voice within their companies.
• Development and training opportunities, as well as career planning.
• Barriers to career advancement.
• Generational differences among women in the technology workforce.
• Equal opportunity and diversity.

Methodology: In Phase 1 of the study, Catalyst used Towers Perrin-ISR employee survey satisfaction data to compare the attitudes of women to men and to subgroups of women based on features such as job roles, employee age, and type of company.

In Phase 2 of the study, Catalyst surveyed women working for technology companies and/or in technical roles. Catalyst heard directly from women their recommendations for ways that companies could improve the development and management of women’s talent. Additionally, the survey asked women about barriers to career advancement that they faced within their companies and analyzed the ways in which these barriers varied by generational cohort and by the type of company in which they worked.

Findings: The findings revealed that while women in technology companies were generally satisfied, there were areas of particular concern for technical women—specifically around supervisory relationships and perceptions of fairness and voice—that companies must address. Findings from the second phase of analysis revealed the persistence of barriers for women working in high-tech companies and/or in technical roles. However, Catalyst was encouraged to find that the women surveyed were less likely to perceive barriers to career advancement than a cross-industry sample of women surveyed early in the decade. Catalyst also found that the prominence of perceived barriers to advancement varied based upon the number of other women in a department or work group, as well as a woman’s generational age.

Lead Sponsor: IBM Corporation

Contributing Sponsors: Cisco Systems, Inc.; Dell Inc.; National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT)