The Digital Talent Overview 2025 contains a figure worth reading twice. Between 2016 and 2024, the number of women employed as ICT specialists in Europe went from 1.1 million to 2 million: almost a million more professionals in eight years. And they still make up 19.5% of the total. No EU country exceeds 30%.

That is the exact definition of a structural problem: the numerator grows and the proportion does not move, because the denominator grows just as fast.

Where it is lost

The same report gives the clue. In the 2023-2024 academic year, more than 21,500 students enrolled in ICT degrees in Barcelona, and women accounted for 18.4% of graduates. The labour market proportion is almost exactly the classroom proportion.

Which means companies are not making a number worse: we are inheriting it. It also means no hiring policy will single-handedly fix something decided six years before the first interview.

What does depend on us

I have sat on plenty of committees where the conversation ends at «no women apply». Sometimes that is true. Almost always it is a description of the problem dressed up as a conclusion.

Three things that are within our control and that we have seen change the outcome:

  • Look at who writes the job ad. A description with twelve «essential» requirements filters for confidence, not competence. And confidence is not evenly distributed.
  • Look at the shortlist before closing it. If a final three contains no women, the question is not about the three. It is about where you looked.
  • Count promotions, not just hires. Hiring is the easy part. The figure that stings is how many of those who joined five years ago are still there, and in what role.

Why it matters for the product

The case is usually made on fairness, and it should also be made on product. A team that shares age, education and career path also shares its blind spots. And a technical team’s blind spots end up in the product: in the form that assumes a family situation, in the use case nobody anticipated, in the accessibility remembered last.

No higher appeal is needed. A homogeneous team gets things wrong homogeneously, and those are the hardest errors to spot from inside.

The pace has slowed too

Barcelona had 129,608 digital professionals in 2024, 6% of the city’s total employment. That is a solid base, but growth fell from 12.4% in 2023 to 6% in 2024.

When a market slows, diversity tends to be the first thing parked: you hire less and you hire safe. It is understandable, and it is precisely the moment when the decision carries most weight, because the teams formed in the slow years are the ones that will lead in the fast ones.

Almost a million more women in eight years, and the same 19.5%. If the figure is still there eight years from now, it will not be for lack of data.