With the UK technology sector beginning to recover and finally seeing more stability, there are, in turn, small amounts of growth in both permanent and contract tech recruitment.
A refiring of shelved or stalled tech projects is underway
Organisations are starting to re-assess previous plans and priorities, including kicking off projects that cannot be delayed any further, and this ‘re-firing’ is creating more opportunities, particularly in project-based work.
This refiring trend could be particularly positive for women in tech as we move further into 2025, writes VIQU IT’s associate director and head of permanent IT recruitment services, Danielle Keegan.
Three top permanent IT job opportunities for women in tech
In the first three months of 2025, 24% of our permanent IT job placements have been women. This proportion roughly aligns with the UK tech workforce being 29% female.
However, the permanent IT job roles we placed these professionals into included:
- Service Desk Analysts;
- Project Managers; and
- Business Analysts.
BAU roles aren’t as attractive to many women in tech
The vast majority of the tech job openings filled by women, via our tech staffing agency in this year’s first three months, were project-based.
In most cases, project-based roles can give workers a degree of flexibility over Business As Usual (‘BAU’) roles which often require more onsite and structured working.
Technical roles lag on flexibility, too
Even before covid, many companies recruiting for project-based IT professionals were offering flexible working or some kind of Working From Home (WFH) arrangement.
In comparison, in my ten-plus years in permanent IT recruitment, I’ve always found that technical roles do NOT tend to offer the same types of flexibility as often.
The pool of technical roles that are truly flexible is narrowing
And the pool of technical roles that are flexible has been narrowing in the last few years since a peak in professionals working from home due to the pandemic.
We wonder if this ‘inflexibility’ of technical roles is partly behind far fewer women applying for such positions.
So even with the number of women working in tech slowly increasing, technical roles are at a disadvantage compared to other types of IT roles if they want females executing them, because historically they have been less attractive to some women in tech.
Flexible and remote work? It’s not going the way most women in tech want
To make matters for some women worse (or at least less appealing), fully remote work is on the decline.
In fact, a reported 38% of UK workers were home-based full-time in June 2020 compared to just 16% in January 2025.
Furthermore, although ‘hybrid’ working is proving more popular, the UK still emerged with a significant drop — from 31% of workers being hybrid in November 2023 to 25% in January 2025.
My take? I think flexibility is certainly one reason why we’re seeing more women in tech filling project-based roles over other positions.
Women are the dominant caregivers -- tech roles need to reflect this reality
Despite changes in society, it is often women who look after the majority of the care responsibilities in families — whether that’s children, elderly relatives or others.
And those who take on the majority of those responsibilities often need some kind of flexibility in their employment, or the job just isn’t going to be a possibility, in practical terms.
What permanent IT job qualities do women typically seek out?
The type of project-based roles that our tech staffing business sees more women filling also correlates with women often being attracted to more caring, teaching and people-centric professions and fields.
That’s why project-based roles that involve bringing teams together and supporting them, handling stakeholders, managing timelines, and communicating key deliverables, might be more attractive to some women.
Why female project managers may be modern-day matrons
There’s another comparison — nursing, a profession historically associated with caring and nurturing.
Well, nursing has a very, very strong female presence.
In fact, data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council in 2024 showed that the chunk of female professionals registered with them was 88.9% of the total nursing and midwifery workforce.
While male nurses are of course present, they are a minority in the profession.
More than three in ten IT contractors (we placed ) in Q1 2025 were female
In terms of IT contractors that our tech staffing agency successfully placed in Q1 2025, 32% were women.
And just to underline the rise of the female project-based techie, 90% of these temporary placements were project or programme-based roles.
Five key IT contractor roles that went to women in 2025 Q1
These freelance tech contracts placed and now invariably underway, all with a woman at the helm, revolved around these five key tech roles:
- Project Managers;
- Business Analysts;
- Strategic Transition Managers;
- Technical Transition Managers; and
- Android developers.
Refreshingly, the gender split on contract IT jobs is more balanced
In the UK’s IT contractor market, we find there’s more of a balance in the gender split insofar as non-technical change and transformation assignments are concerned.
However, on the technical side, we find the ratio of women to men is low.
Again, ‘flexibility’ taking a back seat in the make-up of these technical roles is difficult to discard as a significant reason why the uptake of women is not high.
What women in tech are landing pay rate increases?
At the time of writing (April-May 2025), we are generally finding that rate increases are occurring with female contractors who have progressed their responsibilities or tasks for the end-client organisation customer.
Therefore, extensive knowledge of the relevant systems makes you a solid candidate for a rate increase.
Similarly, despite being temporary or external contractors, female IT freelancers who pocketed a higher headline pay rate in Q1 2025 had often become more integral to the organisation’s operations. Again, if that’s you, you’re well-positioned for a rate rise.
Lastly, a positive….(of sorts) on female pay at contractor renewal during Q1 2025
Separately, our IT contractor recruitment team reported to me yesterday that they are tending to find more female contractors ask for rate increases at contract renewal stage than their male counterparts!
With women known to be less confidence than men at the first stages of coming forward to work in IT, this development is surely a positive.
However, there are concerns over whether this trend of being more vocal about pay upon potentially extending their temporary tech role could be because women initially de-value themselves compared to men when negotiating starting rates.
Danielle Keegan
Danielle Keegan is a technical IT recruiter with 14+ years’ experience in identifying and securing the best permanent IT talent for businesses across the UK.
As an associate director and head of permanent recruitment at VIQU IT, Danielle plays a pivotal role in driving the business forward and contributing to innovative solutions for VIQU’s clients and candidates.
Danielle is passionate about encouraging more women to consider careers in tech and takes prides herself in leading the conversation at VIQU IT and among her client base. These efforts include spearheading a Women in Tech interview series and introducing new processes to household name clients to reduce unconscious bias and encourage more opportunities for women working in tech.
