The lack of women in Silicon Valley is not news, but their views on being a part of the workforce in the notoriously not-so-diverse region may be a bit of a surprise.
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In a survey conducted of more than 100 female tech entrepreneurs by Sukhinder Singh Cassidy–the founder and
chairman of JOYUS, an online shopping website–86% were in favor of women entering into the field, according to USA Today.But upwards of 67% admitted that they faced gender bias and discrimination, while 35% said they had experienced sexual harassment (35%) in their careers.
Some other key findings of the women from the research:
- 84% started tech companies without having a degree in a STEM-related field
- 32% started tech companies while they were getting ready to have children
- 42% started tech companies while raising children
- Said they could raise meaningful amounts of capital from mostly male investors–an average of $34 million per company and $5.7 billion across 167 companies in total
- Built boards and management teams that are more diverse than those of public companies (1.65 women on their boards vs. 0.8 for the top 150 public tech companies)
- 84% of the female tech entrepreneurs were white with the remainder being mostly Asian
- 55% were reared by parents who owned a company
- 37% were motivated to enter entrepreneurship by a male professional role model
The study also found that that the female tech entrepreneurs were like
their male peers in that they had an “irrational faith†that their businesses would be successful, according to the study.The research here offers more insight into women’s views of working in the tech field, offering some optimism but more confirmation of some of the challenges many face while trying to get ahead and be their own bosses.