Why are there so few female executives in Silicon Valley?
A new study finds that female executives are underrepresented in the tech industry.
The research, published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, examines the impact of gender in the workplace.
The study found that women make up about one in five tech companies and one in three CEOs.
“The data suggest that women are underutilized in tech,” lead author and University of Virginia professor of organizational behavior Michael Cornell said in a statement.
“We need to invest in and empower women, regardless of gender, to drive innovation and growth in the industry.”
Cornell and colleagues studied companies that are active in the technology sector, such as Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.
They also looked at companies that have been active in non-tech industries, such.
medical device maker Sanofi-Pasteur, the automotive giant General Motors, and aerospace giant Boeing.
“Our data show that there are a lot of female managers in the top levels of leadership positions, and that women underrepresent themselves at that level,” Cornell told The Verge.
“But when we look at the data that shows women are overrepresented at that other level, we find that women aren’t as important as they are at the top.”
This isn’t the first time that Cornell has explored the issue of women’s underrepresentation in tech.
In 2015, he wrote a piece for The Atlantic titled “Why I’m Leaving Tech to Raise a Family.”
Corbell said that while his experience was different, he found that the gender gap was clear and that the industry had a lot to learn from it.
“There’s a huge amount of discrimination that women face,” he said.
“In technology, you’re going to have to be more open about that, and it’s going to take time to fix it.”
Read the entire article at The Atlantic.
Read the full study here.