Women now represent 22.7% of Portugal’s ICT tech workforce
The number of women working in Portugal’s Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector reached 59,600 in 2024, marking a significant increase of over 13,000 compared to the previous year, according to data released by Eurostat.
The figures were published on the occasion of the International Day of Young Women in ICT, a global initiative launched in 2011 by the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union to promote greater inclusion of women in digital careers.
Women now represent 22.7% of Portugal’s ICT workforce, up from 20.2% in 2023. However, men continue to dominate the sector, accounting for 202,500 professionals, or 77.3% of the total ICT workforce.
The growing number of women working in ICT has been welcomed by several stakeholders interviewed by Lusa news agency. Raquel Yam, Executive Director of the CMU Portugal Academy, a new technology training initiative launched in 2024, reported that women filled 60% of the program’s inaugural cohort. “Equality also involves access to training in all areas,” she said.
Indeed, the number of young women graduating in ICT fields has been increasing, hailed MEP Paulo Nascimento Cabral, an alternate member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. However, he warned that the pay gap is also significant in the sector, pointing out that women in ICT earn almost 20% less than men. According to the Meusalário.pt website, the maximum and minimum salary range for most ICT technical workers is between €1,141 and €3,360 per month.
The MEP identified the need to “identify and eliminate systemic and invisible barriers” that perpetuate this gap, stating that the European Union will only reach its full potential and prosper if both men and women are engaged equally in society.
“This has to be a priority and even in times of economic instability, it is essential to strengthen this participation, first and foremost because it is a civilisational imperative, but also an economic one,” said the MEP.
Meanwhile, Mónica Canário, Project Leader at the Portuguese Association for Diversity and Inclusion (APDI), says now is a moment of “celebration, but also of responsibility.”
Cultural changes within companies have helped changed the paradigm, Canário told Lusa, adding that there has been a continuous effort to promote gender equality in an area that is “critical for the country’s future.”
The country with the most women working in ICT is Germany with 436,200 women, followed by France with 269,900 women and in third place is Spain with 200,100 women, according to Eurostat.
