Introduction
Women in technology are under-represented according to any study you can consult on the issue. This matters, not only for the millions of individual women and girls who find themselves at a disadvantage compared to their male peers, but for the technology sector as a whole which is missing out on talented leaders and experts to drive innovation and progress.
Recent statistics on representation indicate that the industry is making progress. In 2022 Deloitte reported steady gains in overall female workforce representation at the largest technology companies. According to the World Economic Forum, between 2016 and 2022, technology significantly increased the share of women hired into leadership positions. However, despite improvements, the industry continues to lag behind others on both workforce and leadership representation, and as benchmarks are low, gains should be treated with cautious optimism.
There was a time when a generation of high-profile female leaders seemed to hail a new era for the sector, with corporate titans like Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Facebook, Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo and Ginni Rometty, former CEO of IBM among some of the most famous. But as CNN soberingly observed earlier this year following the resignation of Susan Wojcicki from her position as CEO of YouTube, “the tech industry has now lost an entire generation of trailblazing women leaders and replaced them mostly with men”. So, how does tech keep pace with other industries, and ensure that progress is built to last? In the following sections, we’ll look a little deeper into gender equality in the tech industry, and then talk more about practical initiatives and strategies that aim to address the issue.
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