Faster economic growth, a wider pool of talented professionals and happier employees. This can be the future of the information and communications technology (ICT) sector if we manage to eradicate the prevailing gender divides. The first step is to break the gender stereotypes. Only 17 % of the 8 million ICT specialists in the European Union are women. The absence of women is strongly connected to the perception of ICT jobs as a playground for men. Women tend to ignore this field even at an early age, and only a few choose male-dominated tech studies. If we cannot break these stereotypes the EU will keep wasting potential talent. This study shows that ICT jobs actually offer rather favourable working conditions to both women and men. Working hours are often more flexible and employees have more autonomy in adjusting them to their needs. Not to mention that women working in ICT are better paid overall and the pay gap between women and men is smaller than in many other fields. These less-well-known factors could increase women’s interest in choosing a career in ICT. This research note is part of EIGE’s work on monitoring the EU’s progress towards gender equality and supporting the presidencies of the Council of the European Union. I would like to thank all the institutions and experts who contributed, particularly the Bulgarian government, the Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers and its High Level Group on Gender Mainstreaming, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) and, especially, EIGE’s staff. We are confident that this report, its findings and its recommendations offer solid and useful evidence to address women’s participation in ICT jobs now and in the future.