Buenos Aires — Argentine and Uruguayan women occupied first and second place among Latin American candidates for tech jobs over the past couple of years at BairesDev, the San Francisco-based nearshore technology solutions company.
According to the company’s Women in Tech Report 2022, which was drawn up based on the seven million job applications the company received between 2015-21, 40% of candidates were women between 2020 and 2021, which represents a 400% increase over five years earlier.
The report shows that Latin America leads the way in the percentage of women that apply to work in the company.
“Other regions known for their tech hubs, mainly Ukraine/Eastern Europe and India/South Asia, trail behind significantly, with only about half the proportion of female applicants compared to leading Latin American countries, chiefly, Argentina and Uruguay,” the report states.
Also on the list of countries from the region with a strong female tech-talent pool are Brazil, Honduras, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Colombia and Panamá.
‘An above-average percentage of women applicants’
“The biggest surprise from this finding is the presence of other countries with an above-average percentage of women applicants, including Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. This outcome is the result of several conditions, including the affordability of tech talent, cultural similarities, time zone alignment with the US (America’s biggest tech market), and the high English proficiency of professionals living there,” the report states.
“Other factors are contributing to that outcome. For example, many companies in developed countries take advantage of favorable currency exchanges to regularly scout Latin America for tech talent.”
Among the candidates, which include technical and non-technical positions, the peak of participation is among young women. “Women in their 20s represent about 40% of the total number of applications in that age range,” the report states.
“Overall, the average percentage of women applicants is around 35% but there are a few cases worth looking into. Big Latin American countries or those with established tech hubs (such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, or even Uruguay) surpass that average, implying that various initiatives within both the private and public sectors seeking to increase the female presence in STEM-related fields are working,” the report states.
“More importantly, the tech sector in the Caribbean region is initiating certain initiatives focused on reduc - ing the gender gap and helping women thrive. These programs surely have an impact on the number of women getting into the tech industry, whose rise is one of the biggest opportunities these countries have to recover from the negative economic effects of the pandemic,” it adds.
‘Still a long way to go’
“More and more women with greater knowledge in new technologies are showing interest in this industry,” said Rocío Belfiore, Chief Innovation Officer of BairesDev, adding that “the availability of female candidates is one of the first gaps we must overcome to achieve gender equity in the technology sector.”
“We are aware that there is still a long way to go, but these statistics show us that efforts to generate gender parity are paying off,” Belfiore said.
Among technology roles, the study shows that female talent applies up to three times more to positions related to SharePoint and testing, compared to other technologies. At the same time, it reflects that Xamarin, IOs and Android reported increases of 13%, 9% and 8%, respectively.