Despite diversity drive, just 1 in 5 leaders at tech unicorns are women: Report

Women are still under-represented, underpaid, and discriminated against in the tech sector. According to a report from McKinsey, diverse companies perform better and have more engaged employees than companies that do not focus on inclusion and diversity. 

Female leaders will have more female staff

According to the findings of Notion Capital’s latest report “Part One: Female Inclusion”, the B2B tech Unicorns with more female leaders are more likely to have female staff in the rest of the organisation. This report looks into the gender divide (particularly in senior positions) at 20 B2B software unicorns in North America and Europe.

The second part of the report covering how different diversity initiatives correlate with female inclusion within B2B unicorns will be published later this year. 

Maddy Cross, Talent Director at Notion Capital who led the research, says, “During 2020 the conversations I’ve had around diversity and inclusion in the workplace have moved from ‘Why is it important to include everyone?’ to ‘We know it’s important to include everyone, but how can we include everyone?” 

The average tenure for female leaders is half as long as male leaders

As per the study, the average tenure for female leaders at B2B Tech unicorns is 1.78 years, nearly half of the average of male leaders which is 2.66 years. On average just 21% of leaders at B2B Unicorns are women, and women make up only 34% of the overall staff population. 

The report also says that the more female leaders there are at a unicorn, the longer those female leaders stay in their roles.

More female leaders had been promoted compared to men

However, the research also found that 23% of female leaders had been promoted into the senior teams of their organisation versus just 19% of men. 

Female leaders in organisations that promote more women into senior roles also have a significantly higher tenure (1.68 years) compared to men (1.44 years).

On Maternity and Paternity leave

The report also looked into the correlation between generous fully-paid maternity leave at US unicorns and levels of female inclusion. 

The length of available fully-paid maternity leave within an organisation positively correlates with a larger number of female leaders staying for a longer period at the unicorn, as well as a larger population of female staff overall. At US unicorns, longer fully-paid maternity leaves correlates with more women in leadership positions as well as in the entire workforce. 

Also, if you offer mothers, who are the full-time carer, the same paid leave as fathers who aren’t the full-time carer, tenure, and proportion of female leaders in your company will likely be at the lower end of the scale. 

In this particular case, only US firms were considered in this section because maternity and paternity leave policies are different in each European company as a result of the statutory minimum restrictions. 

“I’m really hopeful that this research will be received as a guide to help leaders answer this question so that the array of options they have – such as increasing the paid maternity leave that they offer, or setting diversity targets – becomes easier to navigate in terms of linking initiatives to outcomes,” says Cross.

Main image credits: Notion Capital