A recent report last year found that less than 5% of women hold CEO positions at companies around the world. The number of women in leadership roles is still vastly behind men who hold these job titles, but how does the tech industry perform for women in CEO roles?
In the tech industry specifically, women are largely underrepresented in leadership positions or technical roles. However, there are a number of women leading the way within the tech industry in sectors such as cybersecurity, consumer technology, gaming and artificial intelligence and often have a strong link to STEM. According to research conducted by PwC, over a quarter of female students say they’ve been put off a career in technology as it’s too male dominated.
Many cite education as the reason why women aren’t entering the tech industry in the first instance, and a recent report found that just 27% of women said that they would consider a career within the tech industry, and just 22% of respondents to the survey said that they would be able to name a women in tech.
To find out the countries leading the way for women in tech and female tech CEOs, RS Components analysed data from Crunchbase. Take a look at the map illustration to find out the countries with the highest percentage of female tech CEOs based on the total number of tech companies and the countries with the highest number of female tech CEOs overall.
Top Ten Countries
Regarding the countries leading the way with the most female CEOs, the USA is on top with 4,490 female tech CEOs, however it is estimated that women make up barely a quarter of all senior executives at large US public companies, despite making up around 47% of the US workforce.
Considering 269,431 companies were analysed in the research, this only equates to a percentage of a shocking 1.67% of CEOs being female. Serious work therefore needs to be done, in order to increase this percentage of female CEOs working in the technology sector in the US, and to increase equal opportunities for all.
Following the US with the most female tech CEOs, are India with 1,501 (5.05% female of 29,748 companies analysed), United Kingdom with 631 female tech CEOs (1.30% female CEO rate), Israel with 7.61% (443) of its CEOs being female, and finally Brazil with 437 female CEOs (4.15%). Singapore at 7.87%; Hong Kong 8.99% (299); Netherlands 3.62% (272); Sweden 4.88% (267); Ireland 5.28% (257); round out the top ten.
“Women need to be receiving more opportunities for leadership positions in the technology industry, as well as sustained encouragement for young girls to explore interests and develop career opportunities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects,” explained RS Components in a released statement.
