Saturday, April 4, was International Women in Tech Day. But the conversation is just getting started.
Throughout April, we’ll be celebrating the women who are leading and innovating across the tech industry. At the same time, we’ll take an honest look at where things stand today – because meaningful progress begins with acknowledging the challenges women still face in breaking through the proverbial glass ceiling in IT.
The technology industry is one of the fastest-growing, highest-paying sectors in the global economy.
It’s also one of the least representative.
Women make up nearly half of the global workforce, but only 22% to 25% of the tech workforce. In leadership, that number falls even further. Just 14% to 25% of top management roles are held by women.
And here’s the stat that should stop every talent leader in their tracks: Around 50% of women leave the tech industry by their mid-thirties.
Not because they can’t do the work. Because too often, the environment, the culture, the pay, and the path forward don’t work for them.
So What’s Actually Going On?
The gender gap in tech isn’t a pipeline problem, at least not entirely.
Research consistently shows that women enter STEM fields and adjacent careers at meaningful rates, but they don’t stay. And they’re not always welcomed into the roles where transferable skills would make them exceptional contributors.
Women in tech earn measurably less than their male counterparts at nearly every organizational level. This is a systemic signal that tells women their contributions are valued differently.
When women don’t see themselves reflected in leadership, it’s harder to envision a long-term future in a company.
Many tech sales teams hire from a very narrow profile: someone who already has IT experience, already knows the jargon, already looks like the last person who held the role.
Not only is this approach inequitable, but it also leaves enormous talent on the table.
What We Know About the Opportunity
Tech sales is one of the best entry points into the industry for people with strong transferable skills. It doesn’t require a computer science degree. It requires curiosity, communication, relationship-building, resilience, and drive. While they’re often lumped in with other “soft skills,” these are the skills that close deals.
Women with backgrounds in education, healthcare, retail, hospitality, marketing, and other fields have exactly what it takes to excel in technology sales. They just need a foot in the door.
At FastStartGO!, we build our training program specifically to close this gap. In three to four months, we help new hires – including career-changers with zero IT background – get up to speed on everything from the sales cycle and buying personas to cloud management, cybersecurity, and AI. They hit the ground running and start generating revenue faster.
Our recruiting services teams hire differently – broadening the profiles and building pipelines that don’t default to the same candidate every time.
What Can You Do Today?
Whether you’re a talent leader, a sales manager, or someone considering a career move, here’s where to start:
- Audit your last five to 10 sales hires. How diverse were the backgrounds? The genders? The career paths?
- Ask your team what would have made it easier to break in, and actually listen to their answers.
- Explore training programs (like FastStartGO!) that can onboard “non-traditional” hires fast, so the learning curve isn’t a barrier to your hiring decision
- Amplify women in your network today – a share, a recommendation, a LinkedIn post celebrating someone doing great work in tech.
The talent is out there. The industry just needs to get better at recognizing it.