Gender Diversity in Design Leadership: There are more female than male UX designers in the world. Is this true in design leadership?

I went to a dinner event last Fall where local design leaders met and discussed their interests and challenges. It was a great event and I enjoyed the food, drinks, and conversations we shared. And I couldn’t help but notice something in the room, the gender ratio.

There were 23 attendees, 17 men and 6 women (74% and 26% respectively).

I confess that I have never paid attention to the gender ratio in UX leadership. Maybe because many of my female friends hold leadership positions and I have been a director for a while. Looking back, I must have thought that female UXers have equal (if not more) representation in UX leadership. I must have believed that design was a minority, women were the minority, yet, UX leadership by women was common in tech. This was mind-boggling.

It is common and well-known that women are minorities in tech companies. In meetings and off-site events for directors and above, I have been one of the few, except for one company where 90% of directors were female (yet all C-level executives were male). I have not yet had a female supervisor.

I am sure a lot of us have experienced similar situations and are used to this because:

• Most tech companies have a much larger engineering department where women account for 37% on average (Footnote 1).
• Design is often a small department and therefore doesn’t have the same presence as engineering. For example, there are multiple directors and VPs in the engineering department whereas for design, there’s usually only one director.
• Depending on the organization’s design maturity and business strategy, there are not many C-level or VP level design leader positions.

As a result, there are many more men in tech organizations — only 5% of leadership positions are held by women in Tech (see The State of Women in Tech infographics). Additionally, design as a department often represents a small percentage within the organization. So if you happen to be a woman and a design leader, you’re likely surrounded by a lot of men.

What really hit me at the dinner event was that unlike engineering, women make up over half of the workforce in UX (Footnote 2) — we are not a minority. However, only 30% of the design leaders at that event were women. So where were all of the female UX senior leaders?

It is not fair to say that this dinner event is representative of where we are in gender equality in design leadership. I have requested and received a ratio based on a more comprehensive sample dataset (all members instead of who showed up to the event) to learn if the sample data is an appropriate representation. And yes, it is. Roughly 37% of the group from a total of 2,000+ members in 40 countries globally is composed of those who identify themselves as female as of November 6, 2019.

If you are a design leader, we have opportunities to be mentors and/or role models for the next generation of women design leaders. Having more presence and voice within a company will contribute to the company culture of gender diversity and open up more opportunities for many talented women designers. We should also work harder on building a culture as a leader where designers have equal career growth opportunities and feel safe to learn and grow. We are responsible.

As always, I would love to learn about your experience and insights.

Footnote:

1. Richter, Felix. “Infographic: The Tech World Is Still a Man’s World.” Statista Infographics, March 8, 2019. https://www.statista.com/chart/4467/female-employees-at-tech-companies/.

2. According to the Career Explorer report earlier this year, 53% of UX designers are female and 47% are male. In 2017 UX and User Research Industry Survey Report by usertesting.com, the gender ratio in UX is reported as 51% female, 48% male (1% did not choose).