Breaking the Code: Women Reboot Tech's Future

This is your Women in Business podcast. Welcome to Women in Business. Today, we're digging into the heart of what it means for women to navigate the current economic landscape—especially in the tech industry, where opportunity and challenge collide every day. Listeners, let’s get right to the reality: as of 2025, women hold just about a quarter of roles in core tech fields like computing, engineering, and AI. According to the National Science Foundation, only 21% of engineering and 22% of computing degrees are awarded to women. And those numbers sink even lower in high-growth spaces like artificial intelligence—global reports, including from the Stanford AI Index, put women’s representation in AI roles as low as 22%. Leadership? It's even more stark. Accenture’s latest research says just 28% of tech leadership positions globally go to women, and only 16% make it to chief technology officer. Let’s talk about what this means on the ground, especially as economic tides shift. Gender bias and discrimination still run rampant—over half of women in tech say they’ve faced bias over their technical abilities. Major tech companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft still report women in technical roles at or below 25%. Even as more women enroll in STEM programs and coding bootcamps, the drop-off gets sharp at the mid and senior career levels. The pay gap continues, too—a recent US study found that women in tech earn roughly 95 cents for every dollar their male counterparts request, and layoff data from the last two years show women are 1.6 times more likely to lose their jobs compared to men. But there’s another story emerging—a story of momentum. Corporate and public attention on gender equity keeps growing. According to the Women in Tech Network, female participation has clawed its way back above 25% after post-pandemic declines. Pay equity audits are becoming common. Platforms like Code.org and programs from Girls Who Code are bringing young women into the field early, and women now make up about 34% of new STEM graduates, with those numbers rising steadily. Yet the gap remains wide, especially when it comes to women of color. Black and Latinx women together make up less than 5% of the tech workforce in the US. Senior roles are even harder to attain—among major tech firms, only around 8% to 9% of women serve as CIO, CTO, or in major IT management. Listeners, the tech industry faces a crucial moment. Systemic barriers persist, from hiring and pay practices to lack of mentorship and visibly inclusive leadership. Remote work, though celebrated for flexibility, also comes with new challenges—women are paid less for remote work and often feel penalized for flexing schedules for family responsibilities. According to Deloitte, 45% of women in tech cite work-life balance concerns as a reason to leave. So where do we go from here? The next wave of progress is about more than just entry stats. It’s about rethinking workplace culture, investing in This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.