This year, the World Economic Forum concluded that it would take women 257 years to close the employment gender gap across all industries, compared with its previous estimate of 202 years. It is clear there is much work still to be done but at least we are raising awareness and solutions. We would love to hear your thoughts on the challenges that women face in technology. 

 

Content abrivated from New York Times Article 

In just  two years, All Raise built a network of 20,000 people across four U.S. tech hubs. The industry began adding more female investors, who now make up 13 percent of the venture industry, compaed with[highlight]9 percent before. All Raise said it aimed to help push that number to 18 percent by 2028.[/highlight]

Yet many challenges remain. Roughly two-thirds of venture capital firms still have no female partners. Venture capital funding going to women entrepreneurs stagnated over the last year at around 12 percent. Women own just 11 percent of founder and employee equity in start-ups, according to a study conducted by Carta, a financial technology start-up.

And by some measures, harassment has worsened, according to a recent survey from Women Who Tech, a nonprofit. Forty-four percent of female founders said they had been harassed. Two-thirds said they had been propositioned for sex, up 9 percent from 2017, and one-third said they had been groped, up 7 percent from 2017.

More broadly, bigger tech companies, which began publishing diversity statistics on their work forces six years ago and have poured millions of dollars into diversity efforts, are nowhere close to gender parity and have shown even less progress on hiring more Black and Latino workers. This year, the World Economic Forum concluded that it would take women 257 years to close the employment gender gap across all industries, compared with its previous estimate of 202 years.

Related Reads:

• Metoo horror stories aren’t the only reason to hire more women
• Five strategies to keep women in tech
• Woemen still experiencing inequality in Canadian Capital Markers

“We are not going to take hundreds of years of stereotyping and systemic oppression and turn that around overnight,” Ms. Kostka said. “But are we making more tangible progress? Yes.”

“People in power do not want to give up power,” said Emily Kramer, an executive who sued Carta in July. [highlight]She urged people with the privilege or ability to speak out against the industry’s problems. “We are not making change fast enough,” she said.[/highlight]

Aileen Lee, a venture capitalist who co-founded All Raise, said the tech industry had a long way to go but added that she had noticed encouraging changes.

Five years ago, she said, “you risked being a pariah in tech by pointing out the serious deficiencies and inequities in our system.” But now, she said, “they can’t look at the data and think, ‘Oh, yeah, everything is fine.’”