The number of women in technology is going down, says study

The lack of women employees and employers in Tech has always been a topic of discussion. Where some extremely opinionated people feel women lack the aptitude, there are others who feel there aren’t enough opportunities for women in the sector. However, another interesting study has revealed that the number of tech startups owned by women have also reduced since 2009. Lesa Mitchell, Vice President at the Kauffman Foundation and Vivek Wadhwa, Indian-American technology entrepreneur, who also holds titles at Stanford and Duke Universities surveyed 500 women working in tech online and found interesting results.

The report titled “Women in Technology: Evolving, Ready to Save the World”, revealed that 33% of the surveyed women faced “dismissive attitudes” from colleagues, where investors and venture capitalists were all readily funding inexperienced (male) social media app developers. Another study commissioned by American Express OPEN (AXP), revealed that women owned businesses have had a 47% increase in revenue amongst all companies with revenue of $10 million or more.

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Vivek Wadhwa and Julie Weeks, the author, researcher of the study, believe that women are increasingly getting support from peers and that is helping them succeed together. Weeks added, “We’re seeing that women who are at this level can now get some of the specialized tips and strategies they need to succeed in this rarefied atmosphere. The more they can hang out and share challenges, the better they all get at it. ”

The survey further discovered that 80% of the entrepreneurs surveyed reported having mentors- both male and female. With around 12,700 majority women owned companies, all showing immense growth, Weeks says that she would further like to look into what these women were doing right.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Business Week

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-20/women-who-run-tech-startups-are-catching-up