Building a future tech sector that works for everyone

* This blog was adapted from the Women in Manufacturing UK’s Policy and Research Group response to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology call for evidence: “Building a future tech sector that works for everyone”, submitted in April 2026. It brings together research and lived experience on diversity, inclusion, and the future of technology and manufacturing.

The rapid expansion of the UK tech sector is transforming productivity, innovation, and economic growth. At the same time, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and engineering biology are reshaping the skills, roles, and pathways into technology-focused careers.

But as these technologies evolve, there is also a significant risk that existing inequalities will be reproduced – or even further entrenched – unless inclusion is built into the system from the start.

Addressing underrepresentation in technology is therefore not only a matter of equity. Expanding participation enables organisations to access wider talent pools, strengthen innovation capacity, and improve organisational performance.

The Women in Manufacturing UK Initiative, established in 2022, is a non-profit network of professionals with a shared interest in increasing diversity and inclusion in the manufacturing sector. Founding organisations include the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, supported by Innovate UK Business Connect.

How emerging technologies are changing work

Emerging technologies are already reshaping the skills needed across higher education, research, and industry.

AI-enabled tools are increasingly being used to support systematic literature reviews and qualitative and quantitative data analysis. At the same time, data protection, privacy training, and cybersecurity skills are becoming more important across a wide range of roles.

Academic and teaching roles are also changing rapidly. Increasingly, staff need AI literacy, the ability to engage with AI in research, and the capacity to teach students about both the opportunities and implications of AI. Teaching staff are also adapting assessment methods and developing new digital pedagogy skills to prepare students for a world shaped by emerging technologies.

There is also a growing need for AI literacy to support effective knowledge exchange between universities and industry.

More broadly, the growing importance of critical thinking and creativity reflects a wider structural shift in the nature of work itself.

Persistent barriers remain

While technology is changing quickly, many of the barriers affecting women’s participation and progression remain deeply embedded.

One persistent issue is the social perception that technical subjects and roles are more suited to men. These messages can come from wider society as well as workplace culture, and over time, they may also become internalised.

Increasing the visibility of women already working in technical roles could help challenge these assumptions. Seminars, talks, networking events, and greater representation of women employees and managers all play an important role in making technical careers feel more accessible.

At the same time, AI is reshaping employer expectations in different ways. Discussions across industry highlight a growing divide among firms. Some companies are prioritising narrowly defined technical skills, often recruiting younger graduates with limited business experience to rapidly develop AI solutions, alongside a decline in more traditional graduate schemes. Others are taking a broader strategic approach, seeking employees capable of navigating organisational and technological complexity.

For many organisations – particularly SMEs – this creates growing uncertainty around the types of skills, roles, and career pathways needed in an AI-driven economy.

Barriers occur across the whole career lifecycle

The challenges women face in technology and manufacturing do not appear at just one stage of the pipeline. They emerge across the full career lifecycle, from early education through to leadership and career re-entry.

Women often face barriers throughout their lives as learners, users, and developers of technology. Early-stage interventions remain important for countering stereotypes and encouraging entry into STEM. However, mid- and later-career stages are equally important. Lifelong learning, reskilling, and re-entry pathways matter because many women leave and re-enter the talent pipeline due to structural barriers, including caregiving responsibilities and traditional gender norms.

Research also highlights ongoing retention challenges within engineering and manufacturing. In manufacturing, women’s participation rates tend to decline after their 30s – a period when wider gender pay gaps also become more pronounced.

As careers progress, organisational culture becomes an increasingly important factor. Cultural mindsets can be slow to change, and women often face limited access to networks, mentoring, and decision-making spaces. These inequalities become even more visible at leadership level, where women remain underrepresented in senior roles and therefore have less influence over organisational decision-making and the future direction of technology and innovation.

Inclusion cannot be approached in isolation

Experiences of exclusion are also shaped by intersectional factors, including ethnicity, age, disability, and education. For under-represented groups such as disabled people, barriers can begin very early through unequal access to education, training, and opportunities. Exclusion from employment is often reinforced by broader economic and structural inequalities.

At the same time, digital and AI technologies also have the potential to broaden opportunities and support more inclusive forms of work when implemented effectively and accessibly. This highlights an important point: inclusion cannot be treated as a single issue or addressed through one-size-fits-all approaches.

What organisations are getting right

Inclusive workplaces matter – particularly when employees feel listened to and able to influence decision-making.

Findings from the InterAct “Making Things Work” perceptions study showed that women place significant importance on employers demonstrating clear values around wellbeing, flexibility, work–life balance, and equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).  Having mechanisms for employee voice emerged as especially important.

The study also found that younger workers place greater emphasis on EDI and environmental practices than older cohorts, suggesting that inclusive workplace cultures are becoming increasingly important for attracting future talent.

Targeted innovation programmes have also shown promising results. The Innovate UK Women in Innovation programme, for example, has supported over 200 female innovators and attracted more than 1,400 applications annually, demonstrating substantial unmet demand. Across all Innovate UK awards, the proportion of successful women-led applications has risen from 1 in 7 to 1 in 3.

International evidence similarly suggests that the most effective programmes combine technical skills training with mentoring, access to finance, and professional networks.

Inclusion needs to be built into systems

Alongside targeted programmes, there is also growing recognition that inclusion must be embedded into wider systems and structures.

The European Union, for example, now includes Gender Equality Plans as an eligibility criterion for Horizon Europe funding, while gender balance among researchers is also considered during project assessment. Gender balance in Horizon Europe has improved across several areas, with women now making up 51.4% of members in expert and advisory groups, while the share of women serving as project coordinators has increased from 24% to 31%.

Research also highlights that women entrepreneurs often face financial constraints in technology adoption, alongside persistent stereotypes around technological proficiency. However, findings from the Made Smarter Adoption Research Project showed that women-led businesses with access to funding and information for digital adoption were more likely to report positive impacts on business growth.

Together, these examples suggest that inclusion is most effective when it becomes part of mainstream organisational and policy frameworks rather than being treated as an additional initiative.

Why inclusive technology design matters

One of the clearest examples of why inclusion matters is in the design of technologies themselves.

Many technologies continue to be designed around a “default” reference individual: typically a Caucasian man aged 25–30, weighing 70kg. As a result, products including personal protective equipment, vehicle restraint systems, construction equipment, and pharmaceuticals have sometimes adversely affected women because gender-sensitive design considerations were not adequately incorporated.

International organisations have increasingly highlighted the need for more inclusive approaches to regulation, standards, and innovation. Recommendations include improving gender balance within technical committees, engaging women’s innovation and business organisations, introducing gender impact assessments, and building stronger networks of gender experts to support standards development. There have also been growing calls to move from voluntary to more mandatory approaches to inclusive innovation and accountability mechanisms.

Moving beyond short-term initiatives

As the technology sector changes, some traditional approaches are beginning to feel less effective.

One concern is the continued overemphasis on coding skills, which risks overlooking widening gender gaps in other critical technical areas such as AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, data analysis, network engineering, and process automation.

There are also broader questions about how technical expertise is valued. For too long, education and industry have focused heavily on the traditional “T-shaped engineer”, prioritising technical specialisation while undervaluing wider capabilities and non-technical skills. A broader understanding of skills and capability could better support innovation and help address increasingly complex societal challenges. Some researchers have argued for a shift towards “key-shaped engineers”, where non-technical skills are recognised as integral to solving complex societal challenges rather than secondary to technical expertise.

More fundamentally, there is a growing need to move beyond temporary initiatives towards embedded cultural and structural change. Achieving equal participation in shaping emerging technologies requires long-term transformation rather than short-term interventions.

Looking ahead

As emerging technologies continue to reshape manufacturing, research, and work, inclusion cannot remain a secondary consideration. The decisions being made now – about skills, leadership, technology design, and workplace cultures – will shape who benefits from future technological change.

Creating a future tech sector that works for everyone requires more than short-term initiatives. It requires long-term cultural and structural change, alongside collaboration between industry, policymakers, researchers, and educators.

This is where initiatives such as Women in Manufacturing UK aim to contribute: creating spaces for collaboration, evidence-sharing, and practical action to help build a more inclusive and resilient manufacturing sector.

About Women in Manufacturing UK

The Women in Manufacturing UK Initiative was founded in 2022 to address the gender imbalance in the UK manufacturing sector. Bringing together academics, practitioners, and industry professionals — including founding partners the Institute for Manufacturing (University of Cambridge), the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, and Innovate UK Business Connect — WiM UK works to create inclusive workplace cultures, support career development, and open pathways to leadership. Its mission is to empower women in manufacturing and increase their representation to 35% by 2035.

As manufacturing continues to adapt to digitalisation, AI, decarbonisation, and shifting workforce demands, there is a growing need to ensure these transitions are inclusive and do not deepen existing inequalities. WiM UK aims to support this by connecting research with industry practice, amplifying diverse voices, and encouraging organisations to embed inclusion into leadership, innovation, and workforce development strategies.

The initiative’s work spans research, policy engagement, events, and industry collaboration, helping organisations share good practice and learn from one another.  Through conferences, reports, and cross-sector partnerships, WiM UK seeks to contribute to a manufacturing sector that is more inclusive, resilient, and better equipped to meet future economic and societal challenges.

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