The Women in Digital Discourse set out to connect real-life experiences and insights by generating our own data to provide a true and current overview of the sector’s current workforce and workplace. To do this, we surveyed people, mainly women, on a wide range of workplace issues, including salary, flexibility, parental leave and children, career progression and male allyship.

Encouragingly, the Discourse confirmed that our sector predominately offers great workplace flexibility, which helps women maintain productivity while juggling life’s demands. However, the results still tell us that there is more work to do. The unfortunate reality, as our Discourse shows, is women continue to confront a myriad of barriers in the workplace, from unequal pay to lack of encouragement to apply for senior roles.

A survey by the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) highlights that skills shortages are the biggest barrier to business growth, with half of Australian organisations outsourcing IT roles offshore due to a lack of local talent—especially in AI and cybersecurity.

But what if we focused on building equitable workplaces where everyone, especially women, can thrive? Ensuring that policies and processes reflect the needs of all team members is critical. To meet the goals set by industry bodies, we must expand Australia’s tech talent pool by prioritising the inclusion of underrepresented groups.

The future of job creation in Australia depends on how well we develop and empower local talent—starting today.