Over the last decade, there has been much talk of Indian IT companies putting their money where their mouth is and ramping up diversity initiatives. Software giants like Infosys and Wipro now claim that women make up nearly half of their entry-level recruits.
But when it comes to the more lucrative high-end technology jobs, women are still spectacularly marginalised.
Women account for less than 7% of the total techies working as cloud engineers, according to a recent study by recruiting platform Belong. The company tracked its own platform as well as other publicly available hiring sources, including some job sites, online communities, and tech networks.
This strong gender divide is also prevalent in other new-tech areas such as blockchain, security, and data science.
These new technologies are where the money and opportunities exist today.
Over the next few years, cloud and data science are set to create upwards of 50,000 jobs annually. Moreover, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and blockchain are among the most sought-after skills today. Also, the highest salaries are on offer in these niche areas. For example, techies working with internet of things earn a massive 76% more than the average tech employee.
But clearly, there are very few women cashing into these opportunities.