'It is very alarming': This CEO shares what's pushing women out of the tech industry

It’s no secret that the last few years have been particularly difficult for women employees — but those who find themselves in the tech industry, they’re at a slightly bigger disadvantage. 

As of 2022, women make up 57% of the overall workforce, but only 28% of the tech industry, according to a recent study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management. Of that small percentage, more than half are likely to quit before the age of 35, and 56% are likely to quit by mid-career.

“What we are seeing is an exodus of women leaving tech,” says Silvija Martincevic, HR solutions management company, Deputy’s new CEO. “In recent weeks we’ve seen large women leaders from the likes of YouTube and Meta and Yahoo and IBM  leaving the roles, and it is very alarming.”

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Not only are most of the resignation announcements Martincevic is referring to, such as Ginni Rommetty, IBM’s first female CEO, YouTube’s CEO Susan Wojcicki and Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer, slated for as early as the beginning of April, but all of them alluded to the women leaving their former positions to start their own companies or join smaller start-ups. The similarities have left many wondering whether the diversity efforts in the tech industry are making any difference at all.

Thirty-nine percent of women in tech say that they still see gender bias as an obstacle to getting a promotion, according to career insights platform Zippia. That kind of inaccessibility to career advancement is also one of the many things driving women employees out the door, according to Martincevic. 

“This is not the 1980s, it’s 2023,” she says. “There’s no reason the numbers should be this abysmally low.” 

Martincevic joined Deputy only two months ago, but she already has a few tricks up her sleeve on how she plans to keep more women in the tech industry, and she recently sat down with EBN to share her insight: 

In your experience, what’s pushing so many powerful women to leave their jobs?
First, we have seen that many practices are absolutely outdated. Especially for working mothers, who took on greater childcare obligations. Work has bled into their home life now, and flexibility is really key. On top of that, not only are women still making 82 cents on the dollar compared to men, but it’s women that are having a harder time advancing their career once they’ve entered the workforce. Women are being left behind as men outpace them in everything. I did a survey recently because we were celebrating International Women’s Month. I asked how many of our employees have ever seen and worked for a female CEO — only 20% of them have ever had, and these were employees that have been in the workforce for a very long time. 

The last thing I’m going to say is that I don’t think there is enough written about “tech bro” culture, which is still very real and makes women feel unwelcomed. Studies show that key leadership traits, like humility, self awareness and emotional intelligence, are more likely to be found in women than men. We need more of this kind of leadership and more of the cultures that promote leaders who have those traits. 

What are some of the ways that you, as a woman tech CEO, plan on changing some of that culture within your own organization?
When I left my prior job, I took some time off for myself. It was really a wonderful opportunity for me to reset and to ask myself what it was that I wanted out of my next opportunity. It was incredibly important to me that I was joining a company that was doing something that could improve the world in some small way — I was looking for a culture that is compassionate, people-driven and trustworthy. Seventy-five percent of Deputy’s exec team are women. That is not coincidental, that was intentional. 

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We have seen bad behavior from leaders in the tech industry in recent times. We’ve seen things like CEOs of public tech companies bully their employees on Twitter, which is just unacceptable. What I am doing at Deputy is building a leadership team and a culture that doesn’t come from a place of ego, and instead glorifies leadership that comes from a place of compassion, rationale and steady management. And that’s the kind of culture I hope that many other women who have left their organizations get the opportunity to build. To keep women in tech, we’ve got to build environments that look different and cultures that are going to be driven not by ego, but by performance. 

Recruiting is such a large part of building that kind of culture. What are some of the recruiting strategies you hope to implement?
Our CFO, our head of engineering and our head of revenue are all women. If you’re asking how that was accomplished, it’s about intentionality in the recruiting process. And we have made a commitment that for any senior leadership position we’re hiring for, we want to have 50% of the candidates that make it to the finals to be women and 50% to be male. That means we’re incredibly proactive about expanding the pipeline. 

What are some of the missteps you’ve seen big tech companies make in the last few months that have cost them their women workforce?
What we’ve seen is that flexibility in the workforce benefits women increasingly more than it does men. And so the more flexible workplaces and culture you have, the more women you’re going to be able to retain. So what does that flexibility look like? It’s as simple as being able to work from home permanently. The organizations that are creating these very rigid policies where women must be in the office five days a week and from this hour to that hour, they’re going to lose them. The second part of that is we’re seeing that companies are losing a lot of women as they’re entering that period of becoming mothers. Building out a smoother landing for mothers when they come back from maternity leave is incredibly important. Last but not least, it is again about the kind of culture that you have. Women are going to be especially picky about the kind of leaders they work with and the kind of cultures that they’re joining. And they should be! 

What do you hope women in tech take from this transitionary period?
I really hope that for women who are thinking about leaving the workforce or have already left the workforce, that they remember to take a break from it. Sprinting is not a permanent solution. I believe that women are the solution, and I hope that they can be resilient and come back into the workforce on their own terms. I hope that many more of them come into leadership, and that many more start their own businesses and build the companies that they want to see in the world.