Women facing lay-offs as ‘tech bros’ beat culls

Women have been disproportionately affected by layoffs in Silicon Valley as “tech bros” survive the culls.

More than 44 percent of the 250,898 people laid off between October and March were women, an analysis by online job tracker Layoffs.fyi revealed.

This is remarkable given that women made up only 33 percent of the global engineering workforce by 2022. Some of the world’s largest companies, including Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook owner Meta, have laid off workers en masse to cut costs.

But campaigners say the gender imbalance is largely driven by a “tech bro culture” – built on a system of hyper-masculine traits, where leaders take pride in attending the same universities and networking with similar people. The ‘bros’ are also known for being overworked and lacking social skills.

“Women are being led to believe that they are cheaters and therefore not part of the system, community or network and therefore do not have access to the same opportunities,” says Sonya Barlow of the social enterprise Like Minded Female Network.

“The tech bro culture exists and the only way to effect change is to change things, not throw money temporarily or use tick box activities that expect different results.”

According to career expert Zippia, only 15 percent of tech executives are women, and women make up just 26 percent of computer and math workers. Only 16 percent is in technology.

“Women aren’t usually in the frontline of income-generating roles and are therefore always the first to be ousted,” says Gwen Rhys of campaign group Women in the City, explaining the prevalence of marketing, human resources and recruiting in job cuts. ‘Women more often work part-time, expect to work more at home and are therefore less visible on the work floor. They are men who look out for each other.’

Neveen Awad, a partner at Boston Consulting Group, said middle management was hardest hit.

But some staff have pushed back. Former Twitter employees filed a lawsuit against the social media company after it laid off 57 percent of its female workforce, compared to 47 percent of men — days after Elon Musk bought it in October. Twitter has denied wrongdoing.

Alesha De-Freitas, head of policy at feminist group the Fawcett Society, said: ‘The under-representation of women in technology not only excludes women from some of the highest paying jobs in our society, but also means that some of the biggest problems facing the society today faces — from the tools we use to create our work and art, to AI and online safety — is disproportionately shaped by men and their needs,” she said.

Analysis from Layoffs.fyi suggests that more than 201,000 people will be laid off by 2023.