The Role of Women in the Tech Industry Today

The Role of Women in the Tech Industry Today Tech has always been a predominantly male industry, with iconic male entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg gaining the most recognition for their contributions to  the sector. However, women are playing a huge part too and more and more women are entering both regular and high level positions in tech, with the big global firms such as Apple, Google, Facebook, etc. hiring women 238% faster than men. Coupofy have taken a look at some of the  most successful women in the industry and their roles as founders, leaders, and venture capitalists, to produce this infographic on the role that women play in the tech industry today. How many women are working in tech? 20% of all tech start-ups across the world were founded by women. Chicago, Boston and Silicon Valley have the most tech start-ups founded by women. The number of women working for Facebook grew by 84% in 2015, compared to a  16% increase of men and  83% more women joined Microsoft in 2015, compared to 17% of men. The worlds most powerful women in tech In 2014, 17.4% of CIOs in Fortune 500 companies were women and 6 of Fortune 15 companies have female CIOs. Woman represent 7% of the worlds richest tech billionaires. Rebecca Shanahan is CEO of the fastest growing company led by a woman, growing by  $469.4 million in 3 years. Zhou Qunfei, founder of LENS, is the richest female tech billionaire and is worth a huge $7.5 billion. Women in venture capital Only 4.2% of venture capital investors in the US are women. 5 of 100 investors in the Forbes Midas list of the top venture capitalists are women. Why do women leave tech? 30% blame working conditions, such as long hours, a low salary and no opportunity for career progression. 27% put it down to work-life-balance, stating they do not have enough time with their family and there is too much travel involved. Some of the other top reasons were a loss of interest in their job and problems with the company environment. 24% of women who leave a tech role go on to a non-technical role in a different company and 22% become self-employed in a tech field. How to retain women in tech Offer mentoring programs and networking opportunities, can help staff to seek encouragement and assistance from others in the industry. Flexible working hours will ensure staff feel like they meet a good work-life-balance and have time for commitments outside of their jobs. Providing opportunities for personal development is a large factor that people look for in a job and scope for promotion will improve retention rates. [Top Image Credit: Shutterstock]