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Shattering Silicon Valley's Reinforced Concrete Ceiling
This is your Women in Business podcast.
Welcome to Women in Business. Today, I want to get right into the realities facing women in the tech industry today. Picture this: despite women making up nearly half the U.S. workforce, only about 26% of the STEM workforce and barely a quarter of tech roles are held by women. The most advanced, fastest-growing sector shaping our world still hasn’t closed the gender gap, and that's something every woman in business needs to know.
The first big discussion point is leadership. Looking at the landscape, just 8% of chief technology officers are women and the five major U.S. tech giants—Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet—have never had a female CEO. The persistent lack of women at the top sets the tone all the way down. Even as senior leader numbers inch up, core technical teams rarely see more than a quarter of positions filled by women. It’s not just a glass ceiling—it’s reinforced concrete.
That leads us right into retention. To put it bluntly, half of all women who work in tech have left the industry by age 35. High attrition isn’t due to a lack of talent or ambition, but a work culture where 72% of women report encountering a “bro culture.” Every conversation about inclusion needs to face this reality: companies that don’t address bias, lack of mentorship, and burnout are losing some of their best innovators. For those who stay, the resilience required is enormous.
Third, there’s the pay gap and economic mobility. In the U.S., the average man working in tech earns about $15,000 more than a woman in a similar role. This gap persists despite women outperforming in education—yet the proportion of computer science degrees earned by women has actually dropped from 37% in 1985 to about 20% now. Pay transparency, equity audits, and targeted promotions are being adopted by some firms, but true change depends on more companies making pay parity a priority. The good news is, metro areas like San Jose and Columbia, South Carolina, are starting to make real progress, offering women better pay and job growth than ever before.
Next, let’s talk about the rise of flexible and remote work. The pandemic was devastating in many ways, but it also forced the tech industry to reevaluate what’s possible. For many women, remote work removed barriers of location and offered a shot at better work-life balance. But it’s a double-edged sword—while remote work remains an asset, it can also blur boundaries, increase burnout, and make mentorship even harder to find. The companies leading the way now are those building intentional support networks and investing in mentorship, rather than leaving women isolated behind screens.
Finally, we have the growing influence of women-led startups and data-driven advocacy. We’re seeing more women starting their own companies, often in emerging tech fields. Collaborative data projects and networks, like those championed by the WomenTech Network, are pushing for more transparency and accountability. By rallying allies, leveraging data, and spotlighting men and women working for equity, the next generation of women leaders is changing the narrative one milestone at a time.
We’ve covered the lack of women in leadership, the retention crisis, the stubborn pay gap, the mixed blessing of remote work, and the power of female entrepreneurship and data-driven advocacy. Whether you’re in San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Nairobi, or Berlin, these are the core issues shaping what it means to be a woman in tech—right now.
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Published on 2 days, 7 hours ago