How many women work in tech and marketing? Too many in one place, too few in the other
As the only marketer at a language training company, I spend all day working with software I didn't come up with myself. An advertising tool, a website builder, analytics, a handful of AI tools.
I know exactly which buttons to press. Who designed those buttons, and with which user in mind, I usually don't know.
So I started counting. How many women build the tools that marketers, most of whom are women, work with every day?
The short answer: not many. In the European Union about one in five ICT specialists is a woman, and in AI that share is even lower. In marketing, on the other hand, women are in the majority. Two professions that increasingly overlap, with a completely different split.
Whoever builds the tool decides how you work
Marketing these days runs on software, data and AI. A tool determines which figures you see, which audiences you can choose and which text an AI assistant suggests to you.
So whoever builds the tool partly decides how I do my job. Reason enough to take a look at who those people are.
How many women work in ICT?
In the European Union in 2024, 19.5 per cent of ICT specialists were women. Ten years earlier it was 16.2 per cent.
So it's moving forward, at the pace of a glacier with a leg injury. According to Eurostat, in 2023 127,100 women worked as ICT specialists in the Netherlands.
Anyone who thinks it's down to women themselves should take a look at Eastern Europe. In Estonia, Romania and Bulgaria more than 27 per cent of ICT specialists are women. Same profession, same brains, different culture.
How many women work in AI?
Even fewer. According to a LinkedIn analysis for the World Economic Forum, in 2018 only 22 per cent of AI professionals worldwide were women. A year later UNESCO arrived at 12 per cent of AI researchers.
Those figures are a few years old and the share has grown since, but equality is still a long way off. Women who work in AI are also less often in senior positions.
How many women work in marketing?
In marketing it's exactly the other way round. In 2019 US research by the trade association ANA, 64 to 68 per cent of marketing staff were women, and 47 per cent of CMOs were women.
According to the firm Spencer Stuart, in 2021 women were for the first time in the majority among the CMOs of the hundred largest US advertisers: 51 per cent.
I couldn't find comparable figures for the Netherlands. That in itself says something too.
Why does that split matter?
Because marketing and tech are increasingly becoming the same profession. The tools a marketer works with all day are built roughly four-fifths by men and used largely by women.
What that can lead to, I described in AI is a man too: image generators that draw a CEO as a man and systems that recognise women less well.
The reverse is also true. Marketers know a lot about how people think, choose and buy. That knowledge is hardly at the table where the software is conceived.
Is there a shortage of people in tech?
Yes, and that makes it even stranger. The European Commission wants 20 million ICT specialists by 2030. In 2024 there were about 10.3 million.
So there's a shortage of millions of people, while half the population largely stays away. That's like complaining about an empty room when you haven't invited half the guests.
What can you do?
If you're a marketer, learn how your tools work instead of just how to operate them. You don't have to become a programmer to understand what an algorithm does with your data.
If you work in tech, invite marketers in before the product is finished, not only when it needs to be sold.
If you hire people, count who applies, who gets hired and who gets promoted.
If you work online, dig into AI. Do expect every workshop or manual to be out of date again by the time you've finished it.
What these figures don't say
The marketing figures come from the US, the AI figures are a few years old. They show how skewed the split is, not exactly where it comes from.
Nor do they prove that every tool built by men works worse for women. They do show who's at the table when the choices are made, and who isn't.
A room with space to spare
I work at the intersection of copy, data, websites and AI myself. There's plenty of room, and space for many more women. Not because it ought to be that way, but because the tools get better when the people who use them help build them too.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of ICT specialists in the EU are women?
In 2024, 19.5 per cent of ICT specialists in the European Union were women, compared with 16.2 per cent ten years earlier. In Estonia, Romania and Bulgaria the share is above 27 per cent.
How many women work in marketing?
In the US, 64 to 68 per cent of marketing staff were women in 2019, according to the trade association ANA. No comparable figures are known for the Netherlands.
Why does it matter how many women work in tech?
Because the tools marketers work with every day are largely built by men. Whoever designs the software helps decide which user comes first and which errors creep in.
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