65.9% of Spanish women have at least basic digital skills, more than 10 points above the European average.
In the framework of International Women’s Day, the National Observatory of Technology and Society (Ontsi), a consultative body of the Red.es entity, attached to the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function through the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, has published its report ‘Digital Gender Gap Edition 2025 – Data 2024’.
In its latest edition, the report shows the most relevant indicators of the position of women in the digital transformation process, such as internet use, level of skills or number of digital specialists, based on various national and international statistical sources.
The study shows that in recent years there has been progress in closing the gender gap in certain areas such as internet use or basic digital skills, but there are still differences between genders in aspects such as digital specialists, entrepreneurship, use of AI or confidence in digital technologies.
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Spain is above the European average in occupied digital specialists
Digital specialists
Spain, with 19.5% of women out of the total number of digital specialists, is above the EU average (19.4%), with an increase of 1.4 percentage points compared to 2022. This concept encompasses workers who can develop, operate and maintain ICT systems and those for whom ICT is the main part of their job.
The study also shows that 15.7% of companies have ICT specialists in 2024 in our country, of which 41.9% employ women digital specialists. Although the percentage of companies employing this type of profile has decreased, the percentage of companies with female ICT specialists has grown from 38.7%.
By speciality, the most frequent is the area of data (25%), followed by cloud computing (7.6%). Cybersecurity accounts for 4.4% of female specialists and artificial intelligence for 2.5%.
Women account for 23% of the talent in artificial intelligence in Spain and 6.4% in data science and machine learning.
On the other hand, 6.1% of women are involved in entrepreneurship activities of less than 3.5 years, slightly below the 7.5% of men. However, the gap is higher in medium-high technology entrepreneurship, where women-led initiatives account for 8%, compared to 12% of those led by men.
STEM Education
In terms of at least basic digital skills, 65.9% of women have these skills, 0.6 percentage points less than men, but above the 54.3% of the European average according to the latest available data from 2023.
The largest gap is concentrated at the advanced level, with 37.4% of women and a difference of 2.6 percentage points compared to men.
Concerning the number of women with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) training, the report shows that in 2023, 17.5% of the employed population with STEM training are women, representing a total of 80,800 people, 8,300 more than in 2022. Moreover, Spain is very close to the European average (17.4%).
At the university level, the greatest difference is found in the field of computer science, where women account for 14.8% (0.5 percentage points more than in the 2021-2022 academic year). In engineering they reach 28.7%, but far from parity.
Computer science in the field of vocational training also shows that girls are in a minority. In higher education, women account for 9.1% in administration of networked computer systems, 11.2% in multi-platform application development and 14.3% in web application development.
In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as a whole, girls who want to pursue digital careers in the future account for less than 1.5%, while boys account for almost 10%.
Internet Use and Artificial Intelligence
In 2024, trust in the Internet has grown for both men and women, although overall it is lower among women. The report shows that 28.9% of women have little or no trust in the Internet, compared to 26.7% of men.
In terms of Internet use, although the frequency of use is similar, there is a certain gap among people aged 75 and over, with only one in two women having used the Internet at some point.
On the other hand, women use social networks more than men and perceive a greater amount of hate speech (77.4% believe that it is quite frequent compared to 74.2% of men). In addition, they detect a greater presence of hate speech against them as a group, with 58.4% compared to 51.1% of men.
Concerning cybercrime victimisation, the data show that 66.4% affected women in the case of online sexual crimes in 2023.
In terms of other uses, the data show that women use AI less than men and are more cautious about the implications of using this set of technologies. Specifically, use among men (45.9%) stands out compared to women (38.6%).
When it comes to e-government, women use it more for procedures such as making an appointment (61.9% compared to 55.6%).
Finally, there are no major differences between men and women in the frequency of online shopping (75.2% of women have done so at some point compared to 75% of men), although there are differences in terms of the type of purchase.