By Ebo Aneju, a researcher and writer at Pearl Lemon PR
The tech industry is an industry that is always associated with progress and changing with the times. After all, if tech companies didn’t focus on progression, we would be stuck with old-fashioned and outdated technologies.
Rather ironically, it seems as though the industry obsessed with bringing the future has been left in the past in terms of inclusion for women. The industry has an extremely low percentage of women leaders and is still rather male-dominated.
In recent times, inclusion and diversity has been a big focus for mainstream media and firms across the world. Most industries are looking to improve in these areas and so the number of female CEOs and directors is increasing. This is key to properly closing the gender gap across the world in the next century.
Since the tech industry represents the future and strives for change, it’s important that there needs to be more representation in the industry. To look for methods to improve, we also need to understand why there are so few women leaders in the industry.
Read on to find out about the tech industry and female entrepreneurship.
Why is the Tech Industry Falling Behind?
Only 5% of leadership positions in the tech industry in the UK are held by women. This is significantly lower than the 31% of women in leadership positions in all industries. This shows that the tech industry is lagging behind others in terms of female entrepreneurship.
There seems to be a lack of financing for female entrepreneurs in the industry. Only 9% of funding for UK start-ups goes to businesses owned by women. The tech industry is full of exciting new start-ups looking for their big break. Therefore, it’s clear that this figure is going to be accentuated in the tech industry.
Furthermore, many women feel like they are not taken seriously by investors or managers. This makes it more difficult to receive funding for tech projects. Many tech projects have extremely high research and development costs, so funding is mostly required to start such businesses. This puts women at a disadvantage in the tech industry.
Furthermore, women are unlikely to get managerial promotions if they are not taken seriously by bosses or owners.
What Problems Stem from this?
The tech industry will bring us the technologies of the future and is a key part of both physical and societal progression. If the tech industry fails to progress socially, it will end up bringing a world that is tailored towards women.
Furthermore, a lack of women in managerial positions will continue to stretch the gender gap in work. In the past industrial revolutions, women were neglected and were not given a place in the workplace. This has many negative effects, including the theme of discrimination towards women in society.
Furthermore, it cuts the workforce by almost half and results in countries not reaching their full potential since women are barred from the workplace.
The tech industry has huge levels of influence because the technologies they create will be used by consumers and firms all over the world. It’s vital that this technology is not tailored to a male-dominated workplace
How can we Solve this?
As discussed earlier, funding and investment is a crucial part of entrepreneurship in the tech industry. If firms are unable to gain funding as start-ups, it’s unlikely that they are going to be able to thrive and become successful. If firms owned by women are less likely to gain funding, then it’s clear the percentage of women entrepreneurs and women leaders is going to be lower.
Solving this issue is quite tricky as it unfortunately stems from inherent sexism in some investors. However, if the investment process is changed to focus on the business itself instead of the owners, it would eliminate discrimination from investors.
Blind pitches where investors don’t know the gender of the business owner may help investors take all propositions seriously.
Furthermore, tech firms now have a duty to build an inclusive culture in their businesses today. By ensuring fair judgment and consideration for all promotion and managerial positions, this would give everyone an equal chance for promotion, no matter the gender.
Although figures may look bleak for the tech industry, there are still female CEOs in the tech industry who are successful. One example is Kseniia Stolbovaya who owns DAN-IT EdTech. This is a tech company based on the metaverse that provides education and qualifications in tech roles for people all over the world. Kseniia shares her advice for other women who want to be leaders in the tech industry, she states, “Eliminate all superstitions in the female leadership. Women need to trust themselves and start believing that they can achieve success in the field they choose as long as they are motivated and continue learning.”
This shows there may be signs of progress as the number of women-owned firms is likely to rise in the future.
Furthermore, with changes in the future, it’s likely many more female-owned tech companies will rise. This will set an example for female entrepreneurs across the world and hopefully inspire many more women to start their own tech companies.