Getting more women in tech - the stats
Snowed under and fighting the urge to kick certain people in the balls, I just wanted to share the stats and analysis from my recent survey. It's not scientific, it's a small sample of 200 respondents, but still it's what people think. I would love to hear your comments.
Getting more women in start-ups survey – w/c 13/4/2009
How many women in start-ups/tech companies
33% - none or 1 woman only
65% - in the minority
Women and their roles
63% - in marketing
54% - in office/reception
34% - in software/development
Hiring and working with women vs maternity & childcare
62% - happy to employ women
36% - considers this a problem
2% - would not employ women
Issues
- concerns about retention
- concerns about leaving a gap
- concerns about paying maternity leave
- no CVs for tech roles forthcoming
Why so few women in start-ups?
47% - it’s a matter of choice
30% - not enough good role models
6% - few respondents blame education
Issues
- Women are made to make a choice between a family life and running a business/“If you do this, you won’t be able to have a family for a long time”, women are made to choose between running a business or having a family
- Women are believed to stay away from the start-up industry because it means more risk, lack of security and struggling with a family burden/more outside work responsibilities
- Women have to compete with men for their place in start-ups:
-- General inequality: not being taken seriously/male ignorance
-- Testosterone and competitive nature of men, aggressiveness
-- Old boys network/hiring from the network/employing in self-image
-- “It’s like a modern version of not being allowed in golf clubs or smoking rooms’ – women are excluded/don’t get to hear about opportunities
- How to change it?
-- More female investors needed
-- More female role models needed
Main differences between women and men in start-ups
- Approach to risk taking
- Assumed cultural roles
- Women:
o Disadvantages:
-- not motivated by money
-- modesty, undersell and underestimate themselves
-- worried about making mistakes/perfectionists
-- not advancing themselves and their ideas
-- too honest
-- don’t have any sense of entitlement
-- required to juggle more balls/family/protection/wanting more life/work balance/more outside work commitments
-- building a small business rather than a start-up/a business for themselves rather than to sell it
o Advantages
-- more sensible
-- more rounded, more attention to details/perfectionists
- Men
o Advantages:
-- more obsession/more driven/ having the guts
-- more confidence/ego/arrogance/macho spirit/cavalier attitude
-- fake it til you make it
-- happy to accept trade-offs
Getting more women in start-ups survey – w/c 13/4/2009
How many women in start-ups/tech companies
33% - none or 1 woman only
65% - in the minority
Women and their roles
63% - in marketing
54% - in office/reception
34% - in software/development
Hiring and working with women vs maternity & childcare
62% - happy to employ women
36% - considers this a problem
2% - would not employ women
Issues
- concerns about retention
- concerns about leaving a gap
- concerns about paying maternity leave
- no CVs for tech roles forthcoming
Why so few women in start-ups?
47% - it’s a matter of choice
30% - not enough good role models
6% - few respondents blame education
Issues
- Women are made to make a choice between a family life and running a business/“If you do this, you won’t be able to have a family for a long time”, women are made to choose between running a business or having a family
- Women are believed to stay away from the start-up industry because it means more risk, lack of security and struggling with a family burden/more outside work responsibilities
- Women have to compete with men for their place in start-ups:
-- General inequality: not being taken seriously/male ignorance
-- Testosterone and competitive nature of men, aggressiveness
-- Old boys network/hiring from the network/employing in self-image
-- “It’s like a modern version of not being allowed in golf clubs or smoking rooms’ – women are excluded/don’t get to hear about opportunities
- How to change it?
-- More female investors needed
-- More female role models needed
Main differences between women and men in start-ups
- Approach to risk taking
- Assumed cultural roles
- Women:
o Disadvantages:
-- not motivated by money
-- modesty, undersell and underestimate themselves
-- worried about making mistakes/perfectionists
-- not advancing themselves and their ideas
-- too honest
-- don’t have any sense of entitlement
-- required to juggle more balls/family/protection/wanting more life/work balance/more outside work commitments
-- building a small business rather than a start-up/a business for themselves rather than to sell it
o Advantages
-- more sensible
-- more rounded, more attention to details/perfectionists
- Men
o Advantages:
-- more obsession/more driven/ having the guts
-- more confidence/ego/arrogance/macho spirit/cavalier attitude
-- fake it til you make it
-- happy to accept trade-offs
Comment
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Comment by J Cera on May 29, 2009 at 6:35pm - Wow, worse stats than I would have thought. Having been a Systems Engineer (started out as tech & sys admin) for two start-up companies, I thought there would be more female engineers out in the field by now!
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Comment by Emily McDaid on April 23, 2009 at 11:42am -
Zuz - can we track back to this on our re:medial blog, or is it closed to SS members?
I'm getting SO fed up with the male opinion shared on Paul Walsh's and Milo of the Telegraph's blogs. I'm sure they don't have the majority male opinion but they're shouting the loudest and it's dreadful.
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