Women in the ICT Sector in European Union States: Facing Gender Inequalities

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the patterns of gender inequalities in the Information and Communication (ICT) sector in European Union (EU) countries. Based on secondary data from Eurostat, a cluster analysis has been conducted to identify clusters of EU countries with various patterns of dependencies among the gender pay gap, female entrepreneurship, and employment in the ICT sector. Three clusters of EU countries have been identified with different patterns of the situation as regards women in this sector. In countries belonging to the first cluster, a higher level of gender pay gap coexists with the lowest share of female participation in the ICT sector and features the choice of entrepreneurship rather than employment. In countries of the second cluster, the lowest gender pay gap is observed together with an increase in female employment in the ICT sector as compared to the countries in the first cluster, and a higher share of employed women than entrepreneurs. In the countries of the third cluster, the moderate gender pay gap found therein is associated with the highest share of female ICT entrepreneurs, and is higher than the share of employed professionals. The discovery of the various patterns of the co-existence of the gender pay gap and women’s participation in the ICT sector reveal that the pay gap is rather the factor preventing women from entering this sector, as there is limited potential to push them towards entrepreneurship instead of paid employment. The authors’ results contribute to the theory of entrepreneurship and gender studies by investigating gender gaps in entrepreneurship and wages in the ICT sector as a primary sector.