Last month, I celebrated the appointment of Antonia Romeo as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service. As the first woman to hold the role in its 100-year history, it felt genuinely monumental - proof that the highest office in the civil service is no longer out of reach.
And yet, for the symbolism up top, the view inside government IT tells a different story; one that’s familiar across the tech ecosystem.
On the outside, we see a broadly gender-balanced civil service, with some teams across operations and contact centres even seeing a female-majority. These are women who keep essential services moving; hold deep knowledge of processes, policy in practice and citizen experience; and possess transferable skills ripe for government IT.
Attracting them into IT wouldn’t simply improve team diversity, but would create more robust, representative services - digital systems shaped by people who understand both the machinery of government and the citizens it exists to serve.
Yet women are still underrepresented in government IT.
As someone who entered the civil service within HMRC at 18 in a non-IT, paper-based environment (before computers were even on desks), and essentially moved into IT by accident, the above is a question I’m sad to say is still being asked in 2026.
For me, I was invited to work with IT teams because of my extensive business knowledge, not because of any formal IT credentials. So it was somewhat of a non-linear pathway into the sector, and certainly not one I intentionally set out to choose.
But why didn’t I - and indeed many other women - choose that path when the upside is obvious for both government and me: a chance to develop in-demand digital skills, strengthen my earning power, and shape the systems millions rely on every day?
From my experience, there are a number of structural and cultural reasons why.
First up, there’s a general lack of awareness. In schools and universities, IT is still commonly understood as “you must write code” and, inside the government, there’s limited internal marketing of IT career options. There are few “open days” tailored to civil servants and little accessible explanation of what different IT roles are, what they do, and how to get there, meaning women who might be interested in tech don’t know what pathways exist.
Coupled with this, civil service IT job descriptions often have long lists of “essential” and “desirable” criteria, which can create confidence issues. Many women self-select out if they don’t meet 100% of the criteria, while men are more likely to think, “I can learn that,” and apply anyway. And there’s a perceived “boys’ jobs” culture, which reinforces the idea that IT is not for them and prevents women with strong business skills from even entering the recruitment funnel.
Some barriers are also not gender-specific. For example, departments are governed by strict headcount and budget controls, so even when 10 people in a contact centre want to move into IT, they can only move if there are 10 funded vacancies on the IT side.
Meanwhile, departments such as HMRC have invested in IT apprenticeships and degree routes but, without retention mechanisms or clear onward pathways, many newly trained professionals leave for industry.
So what are the practical steps to encourage more women into IT?
Make digital careers visible internally. The government should actively explain the breadth of IT roles using plain language and real examples. Internal “try a day in IT” shadowing schemes, structured discovery sessions and honest case studies of women who have moved from operations into digital would help here. It would also be great to see senior women in IT visible and approachable, internally and externally. Speaking at internal events and school/university outreach, and acting as mentors or buddies for women transitioning from other parts of government are all powerful methods.
Create clear, supported pathways. That means structured reskilling programmes for existing staff; internal bootcamps, funded external courses, and apprenticeships explicitly promoted to current civil servants, not just external entrants. It also means clear guidance on the skills required, the timeframe involved and the support available (time, mentoring, funding), which will remove guesswork.
Redesign recruitment and training to invite rather than exclude. IT job descriptions should be stripped of unnecessary “essential” criteria that filter out capable career-changers. Clearer language, transparency about what can be learned on the job and explicit encouragement of applicants from any background would widen the funnel.
Treat internal mobility as a strategic workforce decision. If digital capability is a priority, workforce planning must reflect that. As such, reserve a proportion of IT vacancies for internal candidates, including those coming via reskilling/apprenticeship routes.
None of this means lowering the bar, but rather recognising that the talent the government needs is already in the building, and designing systems that allow it to move is what’s needed.