Tech's Southern Belles: Women Redefining Opportunity in Unexpected Places

This is your Women in Business podcast. Let’s start here: I’m sitting at my desk, coffee in hand, thinking about what it means to be a woman in business right now—especially in tech. The numbers are in, and according to CompTIA, women make up just under two-fifths of tech roles across all industries, with some places like e-commerce and data science seeing nearly half female representation—46% and 44%, respectively. But that’s not the full story. In core technical roles, especially at the giants—Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft—women remain in the minority, often hovering around a third of the total workforce, according to WomenTech Network. And when you look at leadership? That number drops. So, despite the progress, we have to talk openly about what’s working, what’s not, and how women can not just survive but thrive in today’s economic climate. My first discussion point is about opportunity—and where it’s found. You might think Silicon Valley is the only place for women in tech, but let’s widen the lens. According to CoworkingCafe’s 2025 analysis, cities like Columbia, South Carolina, and Little Rock, Arkansas, are seeing dramatic gains in both female representation and earnings in tech—sometimes outpacing traditional hubs. San Jose still leads in average salary, but the South is where the fastest wage growth for women in tech is happening. This is a reminder that opportunity isn’t just in one place. For women navigating business, sometimes the right move is to look beyond the obvious, to where growth is happening now. Next, let’s talk about education and the pipeline. Here’s a hard truth from the National Science Foundation: only about 21% of computer science bachelor’s degrees go to women. In engineering, it’s 22%. For Black and Hispanic women, those numbers are even lower. This is a systemic issue, and it doesn’t magically fix itself when women enter the workforce. We can’t talk about women in business without addressing the gaps in who gets a seat at the table in the first place. Mentorship, early exposure, and scholarships—like those from organizations such as Girls Who Code—are crucial. We need to ask not just how women can break into tech, but how we can build a bigger, more diverse pipeline from the ground up. Then there’s the challenge of leadership and advancement. WomenTech Network’s 2025 Barriers to Leadership Report found that 72% of women in tech have experienced gender bias affecting their promotion or leadership opportunities, and a staggering 70% feel promotion processes lack transparency. For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 87 women—and 82 women of color—get the same step up. That’s a leaky pipeline, and it means fewer women are in the room when C-suite decisions are made. Organizations like Lean In and Ellevate Network are working to change this, but we need more companies to commit to transparent, bias-free advancement processes—and to publish their progress. Now, let’s talk about burnout and retentio This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.