It’s not a secret: The amount of Women in tech companies is low. Another non-secret: The percentage of women in finance in top positions is low. Not to mention the amount of female entrepreneurs, which is – you guessed right – even lower.
Studies reveal different causes why we face this shortage: women are often not enabled to choose a career in tech, coding classes should start already in schools, women tend to underestimate their performance – even if it was better than the one from men.
On the other hand, other studies reveal the high advantages of having women in top level positions.
Women on the board
Companies with at least one woman on the board had a 26 % better performance than companies with male-only boards according to a study from Credit Suisse Research Institute. 89% of female entrepreneurs surveyed expected growing or stable profits in the next 12 months, the 2016 BNP Paribas Global Entrepreneur Report says. A Forbes study found out that female tech entrepreneurs are able to generate 20 % more revenue than their male counterparts – although receiving 50 percent less VC funding.
One example for a successful gender balanced company is Lever, a tech company based in the Silicon Valley. Lever is founded and run by a female CEO, Sarah Nahm. The management of Lever is 53 percent female. The company’s board is 40 percent female. Technical roles are 43 percent women. A great success story, with a sad twist: the fact that there is a tech company with a balanced diversity is still worth a news article – obviously because it’s so rare.
So, what can we do to enable more women to start a career in the Fintech field? First, finding and connecting them by starting a large network.
Fintech Ladies Europe
On September 16, the Managing Director of FinLeap, Carolin Gabor initiated the “Fintech Ladies Europe” initiative for female Fintech Founders and Top Women in Banking and Insurance dedicated to Digitization. The goals are: exchanging, cooperating, working on new ideas, pushing each other and especially showing, that women can also make it in Tech and Finance.
#WomenInFintech
Another movement is #WomenInFinTech. Where this one came from? According to Françoise Lamotte, SVP, Head of Direct and Digital, MetLife EMEA, diversity in the workspace is very important. “Organizations perform better when they are inclusive and when women are strongly represented at all levels. However, when you add “tech” to the equation, it seems it raises an additional barrier. Right from the source, the pool of female talents is currently more limited – fewer female engineers, fewer female studying computer science, etc. The #WomeninTech movement will help inspire female students and young professionals to choose careers in that space and create an inclusive environment where they can thrive and succeed.”
Choose the right environment for you, meaning the project that inspires you and the colleagues and leaders who develop a great company culture. Get support and coaching from a mentor. Join Women’s network. Give visibility to your work and achievements – speak up, promote what you do, share your opinion, get on stage. Be brave and dare.. and you will succeed. – Françoise Lamotte
Sources:
FinLeap
Finances Future
Forbes
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