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Nearly three out of four women in computer-related jobs report discrimination in the workplace

For the men, it’s closer to three in 20.

Shirin Ghaffary
Shirin Ghaffary was a senior Vox correspondent covering the social media industry. Previously, Ghaffary worked at BuzzFeed News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and TechCrunch.

About three-quarters of women who work in computer programming and other computer-related jobs say they’ve experienced discrimination in the workplace, according to a new report released by the Pew Research Center today.

The study revealed a high percentage of women working in a wide swath of computer-related jobs suffered some form of discrimination, including sexual harassment. That compares with just 16 percent of men.

The results come as part of a broader analysis of technology and science jobs known as STEM, or science, math, technology and engineering. Pew surveyed 2,344 people in these fields and found that fully half of women experienced discrimination.

Of the women working in STEM who said they faced discrimination, 29 percent said they earned less than a man doing the same job, while another 29 percent said they were treated as though they were incompetent. One in five said they experienced repeated, small slights at work, or received less support from senior leaders than a man doing the same job.

Discrimination as defined in the report covers a wide range of workplace issues, while more specific claims of sexual harassment were reported by about 20 percent of women working in STEM and non-STEM industries.

People of color also reported high levels of discrimination. The survey found a higher share of blacks in STEM jobs, about 62 percent, experiencing racial discrimination compared with other minorities in STEM positions — 44 percent of Asians or 42 percent of Hispanics.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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