Scotland's technology sector is booming. Skyscanner, the global travel website, and Fanduel, a fantasy sports platform, have both attained the mythical "unicorn" status of being valued at more than $1 billion.

The computer games industry boasts global success stories in Rock Star North, producers of the Grand Theft Auto series, and 4J Studios, creators of the console editions of Minecraft. Edinburgh has become a hub for the "Fintech" financial technology sector with Scottish companies providing specialist services to the world's banks and digital start-ups like FreeAgent, miiCard, and Money Dashboard providing innovative services to consumers and small businesses.

More than 84,000 people currently work in digital technologies roles across Scotland generating over £5bn per year. The Scottish Government has estimated 10,000 new skilled workers are needed each year to fill the roles the Scottish tech sector is expected to generate.

In the Scottish Technology Industry Survey for 2016, tech companies reported that the main impact on their business in the coming year is anticipated to be from barriers to recruiting and retaining staff. As is already the case in the US, in Scotland the battle for talent is about to intensify.

Globally, the tech sector has woken up to the fact that key to winning this battle will be attracting and retaining talented women. A further incentive is unlocking the valuable "women's market", estimated to be worth $20 trillion in annual consumer spending worldwide.

Tech companies have had some spectacular failures in their attempts to target this market - remember Dell's pastel laptops and the launch of Apple's "comprehensive" HealthKit app (which allowed users to track their daily intake of molybdenum but not their periods)?

But this is one area in which the tech sector seems to be going backwards rather than leading the way. In its TMT Predictions for 2016, Deloitte LLP predicted that by the end of the year fewer than 25 per cent of information technology jobs in developed countries will be held by women. In Scotland the figure is even lower with recent research published by the Tech Partnership revealing that only 18 per cent of technical roles in Scotland are held by women and less than one in 10 of these are leadership positions.

Initial attempts by the tech sector to engage with the issue demonstrated the same tone deafness shown by the marketing campaigns, with IBM's #HackaHairdryer and EDF's Pretty Curious campaigns attracting more criticism than female recruits. However, the big tech companies have realised they need to do better if they are to meet their current and future business expansion plans. Last year, Intel announced a $300 million investment into its Diversity in Technology initiative. Its goal? To achieve “full representation” of women and minorities in its workforce by 2020.

The issue is complex. Education is critical – in 2014 only 20 per cent of computer science graduates in Scotland were women – but is not the whole story. Deloitte's TMT Prediction for the 2016 report, Women in IT jobs: it is about education, but also about more than just education, identifies four key issues – the education pipeline, recruiting and hiring, paying and promoting and retaining.

In Scotland the tech sector is working on multiple initiatives to address all of these issues. The Scottish Government ICT Skills Investment Plan includes an action plan to increase the number of women in ICT and digital technology roles. Sector bodies like Scotland IS, Equate Scotland and the Tech Partnership Scotland are working to raise awareness of the often unconscious barriers to gender parity in the tech sector and identify solutions which work for Scottish tech companies.

The strength of the tech sector is disruptive innovation that recognises no limits. In the month when SpaceX programmers and engineers have successfully landed a reusable rocket booster on a floating drone ship, gender parity in the tech sector may seem an equally ambitious target, but it is achievable.

Inspired by the 2016 International Women's Day #PledgeForParity campaign, DLA Piper and Deloitte are holding a joint panel event #PledgeForParity in the Technology Sector at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre tomorrow. This event will bring together Scottish industry leaders to discuss the challenges, successes and steps being taken on the path to parity in the tech sector.

To register your interest for the event please contact SarahJayne.Scott@dlapiper.com

Ishbel MacPherson is a senior associate in DLA Piper's Intellectual Property and Technology team.