The Tech World Is Still a Man's World

Last year, the United Nations celebrated International Women’s Day under the official theme “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality”. One industry that is still a long way from gender equality is the tech industry. While the percentage of women in the United States labor force has gradually climbed to 46.8 percent over the past decades, it is still significantly lower in the tech sector.

Female employees make up between 26 percent (Microsoft) and 44 percent (PayPal) of the workforce at major tech companies, with the percentage dropping much lower when it comes to actual tech jobs. In terms of leadership positions, the status of women in the technology sector, as represented here by the eight companies in our chart, is roughly on par with the rest of the economy. In 2015, women held 25 percent of executive, senior-level and management positions in S&P 500 companies – a percentage that the tech industry matches and in some cases exceeds, but one that is still far from parity.