Leading Ladies - Women leaders in the Tech and Finance industries

The tech sector has lagged behind other industries when it comes to the representation of women in leadership roles. Even though technology is an increasing part of our modern day lives, it seems that women are still facing a bias in tech companies. Across industries, companies are keen to increase the presence of women in technical roles. Although progress has been made in the last few years, fast-growing fields such as engineering, product management still have a way to go.

Some of the reasons for women to be left out of the booming tech industry could be “bro-culture” which refers to an uncomfortable work environment where sexist attitudes and sexual harassment and assaults may occur. According to a report from TrustRadius, 72% of women said they have worked for a company where “bro culture” is pervasive.

Another historical reason for a shortage of women in tech is that STEM degrees are still traditionally male-dominated. A study from MIT indicates that young people are interested in STEM early on, but then lose interest due to a lack of interaction and inspiring female role models and mentors in the STEM fields. Stereotypes have also led to women being systematically excluded from tech industries for decades due to supposed lack of ability or interest in science and maths. Although research by the Girls who Code initiative reported that 74% of girls express a desire for a career in STEM fields.

When companies are hiring there is more focus on gender parity and increasing equality in management and executive roles but there is still work to do regarding promotion for women in tech.

Regardless of the industries and roles, men are still promoted faster than women. The Women in the Workplace report, published by McKinsey in 2021 showed that only 86 women are promoted to manager for every 100 men at the same level. However, in technical roles, this gender gap becomes even bigger, as only 52 women are promoted to manager for every 100 men.

Early promotion in a career is an important step towards success, and as McKinsey’s report shows, women still hold only 34 percent of entry-level engineering and product roles and 26 percent of first-level manager positions, compared with 48 percent of entry-level roles and 41 percent of firstlevel manager positions.

It seems that gender equality pays, as the report also found that companies with the most diversity within their leadership teams also have better performance and are 48 percent more likely to perform better than companies that are less gender-diverse, so gender-diversity is a benefit that extends to all stakeholders.

A study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the Technical University of Munich showed that increasing the diversity of leadership led to more and better innovation and improved financial performance in both developing and developed economies. It seems that not taking advantage of a female presence in the workplace is a risk most businesses shouldn’t take.

In 2022, Deloitte predicted that the tech industry would reach nearly 33% overall female representation in the workforce. The proportion of women in technical roles also rose in 2022, though it is still behind, with the overall proportion of women around 8 %.

Companies should take into account how their models can help them expand the diversity of their talent pool. Several major tech companies such as Google, Salesforce, and IBM have increased their childcare and caregiver leave, other companies are following a remote-first work model or hybrid working. This working “from anywhere” model can also help expand the talent pool as employees can be based anywhere around the world.

Interacting with a diverse team helps workers prepare better and anticipate alternative viewpoints. The presence of women in a company makes individuals anticipate differences in opinion and perspective.

A mix of genders with various backgrounds and ethnicities helps a company gain a reputation of having a more diverse workforce, you also gain an extremely powerful recruiting tool at your disposal.

By encouraging and promoting female tech leaders, more girls could have increased interests and careers in tech, and increase the hiring diversity. Young girls need strong role models of successful women in STEM in order to see that they can be in the industry too.

Being a woman in Tech is not always easy, and being the only woman in the boardroom at times can create unseen pressure, but more women are needed who are willing to take on leadership positions, men must be more willing to take on work in the household and employers have to create a more flexible workspace. We live in a profoundly connected and global world, and companies/institutions that are more diverse will achieve better performance

There are many economic, organisational, cultural and policy obstacles that stop women from accessing the top roles in tech, and in order to help a company realise its full potential, gender diversity must be a business priority. Leaders must be accountable for diversity and inclusion.