Women in Tech: The Numbers

If you’re a woman thinking about switching careers, you might be wary of going for a profession in tech. And we’re not going to lie — as an industry, it’s still a bit of a boys’ club. But there are reasons to be optimistic, too. How do we know? Because we’ve got the numbers. So dive in — here’s the data you need to know about women in tech.

Representation is lagging

This year, we surveyed over 1,000 employers to get the lay of the land — what decision makers are looking for in candidates as well as the current state of the tech industry. Less than a third of respondents said that women represented at least half of their workforce. So there’s still a long way to go in the industry at large.

Want to join a women-majority team? Look to small companies.

But in that survey, we also could examine the data to see how representation differed among businesses of different sizes. And we discovered something fascinating among small companies: they led the pack in reporting an internal population that was over 71% women. In fact, a tenth of respondents from small companies said that their workforce was 91-100% women. What this tells us is that if you want to work in a team where women are the absolute majority, small companies_{Forget the Giants: You Can Work in Tech Without Working in Big Tech} are your best bet.

Tech holds promise for women

A Gallup poll showed the priorities of women when considering new careers. And tech checks a whole bunch of those boxes — greater work life balance and better well-being? Jenny Doctor_{From Making Music to Making Commits: Jenny Doctor’s TripleTen Story} can speak to that. She was a music teacher who was burning out and unable to find time to spend on her passions. However, after deciding to make the switch, the difference is clear:

“Now that I am in tech and I'm at home and I have more free time for myself, I’ve found that I've been playing more music.”

And increased income is something we’ve seen across the board in our Outcomes Report.

By the way, employed grads from our Data Science Program exceeded that — their median income was $89,300!

Discover more

The rest of the qualities women reported they were looking for in a new job? These can be found in tech, too. See how by reading more of our student stories.