Women in tech: communities worth joining in the UK
The hardest part of being a woman in tech is rarely the technology. It is being the only one in the room often enough that you start to wonder whether the room is the problem or you are.
BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, has reported for years, drawing on ONS Labour Force Survey data, that women make up only around a fifth of UK IT specialists. That number explains a lot: the isolation, the second-guessing, the absence of anyone a rung above you who has navigated the same thing.
Communities do not fix structural inequality. What they do is give you comparison, which turns out to matter enormously. Once you can see that four other women had the same experience with the same kind of manager, you stop treating it as a personal failing and start treating it as information.
Below are women in tech communities in the UK that are genuinely active, what each actually offers, and how to work out which one is worth your evenings.
Why joining a community is worth the time
Three practical returns, beyond the moral support.
Roles that never reach a job board. A large share of technical hiring happens through referral. If your network is your current team, your options are your current team’s options.
Calibration on pay. Talking to five women doing your job at other companies is the fastest salary research available, and it is the reason employer pay secrecy holds.
Evidence for your own case. Speaking at a meetup, mentoring, running a workshop: these are the concrete, dateable achievements that promotion panels ask for and that quiet excellent work never generates.
Communities worth joining in the UK
BCSWomen
A specialist group of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, and one of the longest running women in tech networks in the country. It runs events, a mailing list and the annual BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium, a conference specifically for women undergraduates in computing. Best if you want professional credibility alongside community, particularly if you are working towards chartered status.
Stemettes
Founded in 2013 by Anne-Marie Imafidon, Stemettes is a social enterprise running free events, hackathons and mentoring for girls and young women across science, technology, engineering and maths. If you are early in your career it is a route in. If you are established, it is one of the easiest places to volunteer and mentor without a large time commitment.
Codebar
A non-profit that runs free coding workshops pairing students with volunteer coaches, founded in London and now running in cities across the UK. Codebar is aimed at people under-represented in tech generally rather than women only. It is the most useful entry on this list if you are learning to code or changing career, because the format is hands-on rather than a talk you sit through.
Coding Black Females
Founded in 2017 by Charlene Hunter, this is the UK’s best known network for Black women in tech, running events, workshops and mentoring. If the women in tech spaces you have tried have felt like they were designed for someone else, this is the one to look at first.
SheCanCode
A UK community and platform for women in tech that publishes career content, runs events and hosts a job board. It is a good low-effort starting point: you can follow it and take value from it without committing to attending anything, and step up when you want to.
WeAreTechWomen
Part of WeAreTheCity, founded by Vanessa Vallely, WeAreTechWomen runs conferences, a mentoring programme and the TechWomen100 awards. It leans corporate, which is a feature rather than a flaw if you work in a large organisation and want visibility inside one. Our guide to women in tech awards in the UK covers which recognition schemes are actually worth entering.
Women in Data UK
A network for women working in data, analytics and data science, built around an annual UK conference plus year-round activity. Data roles sit awkwardly between engineering and business, and this is one of the few communities that treats that as a discipline in its own right rather than a subset of software.
Women in Games
A UK-founded non-profit working on representation in the games industry, running events, advocacy and an ambassador programme. Games has some of the most acute representation problems in tech, and generalist communities rarely understand its hiring routes, so a sector-specific group earns its place.
How to choose between women in tech communities
Match the community to what you actually need this year, not to the one with the best branding.
If you need skills, choose a hands-on group with a regular workshop format. If you need a job, choose one with an active job board and a strong in-person turnout, because referrals come from faces. If you need visibility, choose one that runs awards, speaker slots or mentoring, and volunteer for something. If you need not to feel mad, choose the smallest, most specific group you can find, because honesty scales downwards.
Two is usually the right number. One broad community for reach and one narrow one for depth. Beyond that you are collecting newsletters, not building a network. Our piece on networking for women covers how to make those relationships work once you are in the room.
Check a community is still running before you commit
Women in tech communities depend on volunteer energy and sponsorship, and both are fragile. Women Who Code, one of the largest global networks of its kind, shut down in April 2024 after losing its funding. Chapters and local branches close far more quietly than that.
Before you build a plan around any group, check when it last ran an event, whether its social accounts have posted this quarter, and whether the London chapter is the only one still active. A dormant community with a beautiful website is worse than no community, because it costs you months before you notice.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to work in tech to join a women in tech community?
Usually not. Most UK groups, including Codebar and Stemettes, are explicitly aimed at people learning or changing career. Some professional bodies such as BCS have membership grades tied to experience, but their events are typically open.
Are women in tech communities only for developers?
No. Data, product, design, QA, cyber security, DevOps and technical programme management are all represented, and groups such as Women in Data UK exist precisely because non-developer technical work gets overlooked.
Do these communities cost money?
Most run free events. Professional bodies charge membership, and large conferences charge for tickets, though many operate scholarship or diversity ticket schemes. Ask, because the schemes are rarely advertised prominently.
Will joining a community actually help me get hired?
Indirectly, and slowly. It widens the set of people who can refer you and sharpens what you know about pay and employers, which is where the compounding happens. For the direct route, our guide to tech jobs in the UK and our overview of technology roles, pay and how to start are better starting points.
Join RecruitHer, a community of women hiring and backing women.
This is educational information, not careers advice. Community programmes, events and eligibility change, so check directly with each organisation before relying on it. For workplace rights, contact ACAS (free and impartial) or check gov.uk.
Last reviewed: August 2026