Member Article

Women more than twice as likely to lead a UK tech company than a FTSE 350 enterprise investigation reveals

• Panintelligence investigation finds just 4% of FTSE 350 companies havea female CEO compared to 9% of the largest UK tech companies
• 9% of UK SaaS companies have a female CEO
• 8.5% of US tech companies are led by a female CEO*

A new investigation has revealed that the UK’s largest technology companies have more than twice (2.5 times) the number of female leaders at the helm than FTSE 350 enterprises.

On International Women’s Day, analysis from data analytics and business intelligence (BI) software developer, Panintelligence, shows that 9% (33) of tech companies in Britain are currently led by a female CEO, compared tojust 4% (13) of the FTSE 350. When it comes to UK SaaS companies specifically, 9% (33) have a female CEO.

Meanwhile, in the US, 8.5% (30) of the largest tech companies have a female CEO, showing the situation is similar on the other side of the Atlantic. Despite theUK tech sector leading the way in female leadership Zandra Moore, CEO of Panintelligence, says more work must be done to further address this gender imbalance.

“While it’s important to recognise that these figures show the technology sector is leading the way in female leadership, it’s clear that more must be done to bothincrease the percentage in our own industry and within the wider business community as well. Events such as International Women’s Day continue to shine a light on the capabilities of women, everywhere, and must continue to do so.

“When trying to climb the corporate ladder women often still face a number of challenges; such as gender bias, inequality, a lack of support from their male counterparts, outdated workplace cultures and even negative mindsets and thoughts. Even family choices, such as wanting to start a family, can hinder womens’ progress in reaching top leadership positions.

“If men and women don’t work together more effectively to raise awareness and tackle these issues, then the gender gap may exist for some time to come – yet studies have shown that companies withgender diversity in leadershipoutperform their lessdiversepeers. Committing to diversity targets, creating female talent networks, implementing flexible working models or restructuring recruitment processes are all ways in which businesses can encourage gender diversity in boardrooms.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Panintelligence .