Slide 4: Women in Tech Still Face Pervasive ‘Bro Culture’

Seventy-two percent of women in tech have worked at a company where “bro culture” is pervasive. This is about the same as last year when 71% of women reported experiencing bro culture. 

Only 41% of men say the same. Safe to say that this discrepancy points to a pretty sizable difference in perception. 

It’s worth noting that bro culture manifests in a lot of different ways across the tech industry. Men and women perceive that culture very differently. TrustRadius also found that the pervasiveness of bro culture varies by department. Eighty-three percent of women in sales and 80% of women in marketing experience this issue in 2021.

In comparison, 63% of women in engineering and IT have experienced pervasive bro culture. This is considerably less than in other departments, but still far too high.  

The research also uncovered an age-related trend. The data indicates that millennial and Gen Z women may be less likely to have experienced bro culture than older women. This could be a sign of genuine progress in the last decade.

The other explanation is that boomer and Gen X women have simply worked more jobs. This means more chances to experience sexist workplace culture. Hopefully we will see those Gen Z and millennial numbers stay the same in the future.