The unequal balance of employees based on gender, known as the gender gap, should be approached by IT organizations not just from a social or ethical lens, but as a business imperative, according to Gartner.

IT organizations with high overall diversity tend to churn out more innovative products and strategies, are more productive on metrics that matter to business leaders, and increase profits, Gartner reported. If a company is striving to be more innovative and generate more revenue — which are items on most corporate to-do lists — "I would use every tool that I thought could get me there, and diversity is one of those tools," Gartner analyst Christie Struckman told SDxCentral.

Embracing and supporting diversity is how modern organizations successfully attract and retain talent. "Employees want to know they work for an organization that is more reflective of today's social discourse," Struckman said.

Women in IT overcome various obstacles, the first of which begins in academia. "We have been a pronounced minority from the beginning of our interest in this profession," Struckman said, citing the lack of gender parity among college students pursuing IT.

The lack of female representation doesn't get better from there and leads to "an uncomfortable dynamic" in the workplace. "You're always wondering if something's happening" — like a job promotion, or the lack of one — "because you're a female or because of your technical knowledge," Struckman explained. It's difficult to tease those two apart and be confident to push for a pay raise or promotion.

Another consistent issue women in IT face is unequal pay. "[As] women, we tend to not negotiate our salary," Struckman said. If a man and woman are offered the same starting salary, but the man negotiates for higher pay and the woman doesn't, that leaves a lifelong impact because she begins with a deficit.

"We don't start even, and then it just feels like we're always in catch-up mode," she explained, adding that women in IT face marginalizing everyday behaviors that "progressively and successively" teach them they aren't valued.

One of these behaviors is referred to as the unequal personality trait assessment and describes when individuals reach different conclusions about men and women based on identical personality characteristics.

For example, a man who raises his voice during a meeting and assertively makes a decision may be thought of as a strong leader capable of getting things done. But a woman in that same spot is more likely to be viewed in a derogatory light, Struckman explained. "Where's the line between strong leadership and going too far?"

Gartner recommends a few changes the industry should consider to better attract and retain a diverse range of talent, starting with job descriptions and education requirements during the recruitment process.

Job descriptions should be used as marketing tools to promote a company's mission and ethics while bringing in the best possible candidates, Struckman said. And those candidates don't always need to be limited by academic degree requirements. "We need to really shake up what we think are the academic requirements for what it takes to be successful" in IT roles, she said, citing the plethora of talent delivered out of community college programs often taught by IT practitioners.

"We are artificially limiting the pool when we say you [need] to have a Bachelor's of Science degree in computer science or something like that. We need to bust that myth that [a four-year degree] is required, or at a minimum, maybe be significantly more judicious about when we require it," she explained.

Gartner also recommends implementing an internship program that targets diverse candidates. This is an ideal situation because both the company and the intern "get to try each other out," Struckman explained. The organization can evaluate if the intern would be a good long term fit, "but the candidate gets to see if it's a good organization and if they were treated with respect and supported."