Odgers Berndtson study reveals Women in Tech leaders out earn men for the first time

A global study by Odgers Berndtson has revealed that women leaders in technology double the share of top roles and are out earning men for the first time. The firm has seen numbers rise over the years of women in senior positions within the technology sector and have recently launched a mentoring initiative for women.

The study involved almost 1000 executive searches for top roles in technology which the firm had been carrying out since 2015. For the first time in 2018, they had seen that women’s share of top roles and earnings doubled as their average salaries were exceeding men’s. Furthermore, to help with the significant challenges that women in the technology sector still face today, the firm have announced that they will be launching a mentoring initiative to fast track women in senior positions.

Head of the Global Technology practice at Odgers Berndtson, Mike Drew has commented on the results claiming that he is delighted that the firm has made such progress over the past five years for women in top roles with global technology companies. He hopes that this is the start of greater diversity which he hopes their mentoring initiative can accelerate.

The technology sector is facing challenges, as the Tech UK member body have pointed out, that in the UK 17% of those working in the industry are female. At leadership levels, the number of women is considerably lower estimating at around 9% globally and 5% in the UK.

Amongst the study that has shown women are now out earning men for the first time within technology roles, the results also show:

• The average pay difference for women in the top commercial roles in the technology sector by Odgers Berndtson have almost disappeared within the five years. Average salaries for top female executives have risen from £122,000 in 2013 – which was less than half of the male average to £330,000 in 2018.
• Women have almost double in their share of leadership placements in tech companies from 11% to 20% since 2015.
• Although men are still dominating the most highly paid tech leadership roles in general, women are starting to close the gap. Especially in placements of commercial leaders in the technology sector.
• Men still dominate leadership roles including Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer in both numbers, earning power and salary packages.
• However, the number of women who are placed as technology leaders is increasing. The study has shown that women who have been place in top tech roles like CIO and CTO has almost doubled from 9% to 17% in 2018.

The Odgers Berndtson Leadership Mentoring Programme will focus more on senior women who are aiming for board or executive roles in the technology industry. The leader of the programme, Holly Addison has stated that the programme is to further boost the numbers of women in senior leadership roles across the technology sector where they are underrepresented. After successfully leading a previous mentoring programme for women in hospitality and leisure a few years ago Holly has adapted the programme for women in technology. Odgers Berndston have previously run a mentoring programme for women in procurement and from that they have developed a template which will enable the technology sector to provide the same support for women.