Women Made Incremental Progress in Tech the Past Few Years (Infographic) From industry leaders to startups to venture capital, here is where women are making an impact.
By Nina Zipkin
While some significant strides have been made by women in STEM and the startup world, there is still a ways to go toward gender parity in the industry.
Silicon Valley is a stronghold of the tech industry, but it is actually Chicago and Boston that can claim the highest number of women-founded startups, according to a recent infographic presented by Coupofy.com. Thirty percent of the Windy City's tech startups were launched by female founders.
Related: The 4 Biggest Myths Discouraging Women From Tech Careers
In 2009, just over 9 percent of tech startups in the U.S. had at least one female founder, but as recently as 2014, that numbers has doubled to 18 percent. Notably, industry leaders such as Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter have been hiring women at a significantly higher rate than their male counterparts during the past two years.
While this growth is encouraging, this is still much progress to be made. In the world of tech investing, only 7 percent of U.S. venture capital firms invest in businesses with female CEOs. A little more than 19 percent of female founders receive seed and angel investments while about 80 percent of their male counterparts can expect the same.
Related: U.S. Is No. 1 for Women Entrepreneurs, But There's Still Room for Improvement
Some 56 percent of women leave tech positions because of factors such as an unsupportive company culture or no room for career advancement.
For more information on the top women tech executives and women-run VC firms, and ways to create more opportunities for female founders, check out the infographic below.
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