Breaking the Code: Women Redefining Tech's Bottom Line

This is your Women in Business podcast. Welcome back to Women in Business, where we spotlight the voices and stories driving change in today’s world. Today, we’re taking you directly into the engine room of the current economy: the tech industry, and the experience of women forging their path within it. Let’s begin with the numbers behind the headlines. According to the 2025 Women in Digital Annual Report, Australia’s tech sector—like many around the world—still sees women make up less than 30 percent of its workforce. In the United States, it’s a similar story: CompTIA’s newest findings reveal that women occupy just over a quarter of all roles in tech. Yet, this is up from the single digits at the start of the millennium. That climb is real progress, but it’s not nearly fast enough. As new technologies redefine the workplace, women are confronted by a mix of opportunities and persistent barriers. In emerging tech like AI and data science, the doors are slowly opening; in fact, data science roles now see the highest female representation, nearing fifty percent in some sectors. But this is still the exception. In key positions like cybersecurity, for example, women hold only about one in five jobs. The numbers drop even sharper in technical leadership: just 14 percent of chief information officers globally are women, and female-founded teams remain rare. The face of tech might be changing, but the people calling the shots are still overwhelmingly male. But the story isn’t just one of underrepresentation. Women are actively shaping the landscape, especially in cities that prioritize diversity and advancement. For instance, Little Rock, Arkansas, and Columbia, South Carolina, have been recognized for leaps in women’s earnings and gender diversity in tech, proving that progress can bloom in unexpected places, far beyond the Silicon Valley stereotype. Still, even with these regional bright spots, real challenges persist—many of which women have been sounding the alarm on for years. According to Skillsoft’s Women in Tech Report, the gender pay gap still bites deeply. In roughly sixty percent of tech jobs, men are offered higher salaries than women for identical roles. And the so-called “missing middle” is a stubborn problem: a huge portion of women who enter tech drop out by their mid-thirties, held back not by ambition, but by cultures or policies that don’t support family life or career advancement. Big tech layoffs have only amplified these setbacks. Yet, the potential impact of closing the gender gap is staggering. McKinsey & Company estimates that reaching pay and position parity could add over $12 trillion to global GDP by 2025. That's not just an opportunity—it’s a call to action, both for business leaders and policymakers, and for women themselves to continue breaking barriers. So what are the key discussion points as women in tech navigate today’s economic landscape? First, let’s talk about ongoing representation and the hard numbers be This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.