The tech leadership picture has stagnated, with only 14% of tech leaders at NASDAQ-100 companies being women.

NASDAQ-100 is a stock market index representing the the 100 largest, most actively traded companies listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, a New York-headquartered stock market.

A dataset from Tenth Revolution Group tracking the gender composition of top performing companies found that despite greater awareness of gender inequality, the tech leadership picture has not changed.

Following up on previous research into companies on the UK’s FTSE 100 index, the group collated data on CIOs and CTOs at NASDAQ-100 companies, spanning the period 2021-2024.

The results pinpoint the present state of gender inequality at the biggest companies, while also tracking how the landscape has (or hasn’t) shifted over the last four years as a whole.

In 2024, just 14% of leaders in these companies were women – this has remained largely the same since 2021. In 2022, the figure rose to 17%, but this was back down to 14% by 2023.

The statistics also revealed that women‘s tenure as leaders was also significantly shorter than their male counterparts, with the average tenure of a female leader being just 1.5 years, compared to 4.3 for men.

Further, there is currently no upward trend toward gender parity amongst tech leaders at the biggest businesses in the US market, with the current figure of 14% the same as it was in 2021.

Only adding to gender inequality is the fact that not a single company included in the survey had a visible non-binary tech leader at board level.

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“There’s been so much good work in terms of research and advocacy around gender inequality in tech over the past decade, but this new data on the balance at leadership level amongst some of the biggest and most influential companies is really very stark,” James Lloyd-Townshend, chairman and CEO of Tenth Revolution Group said.

“Women making up only 14% of tech leaders in 2024 just isn’t right.”

Addressing the question of tenure, Tenth Revolution Group president Zoë Morris added: “We know we need to get more women into tech, but we also need to create the conditions to support women to stay in tech and become our next generation of leaders.

“More than ever, we need to ensure progression pathways are clear and that both hiring and promotional decisions are taken equitably.”

“The shorter average tenure for women is also a problem,” Morris continued. “It indicates that the few women who are in these posts are newer to them, but it could also be telling us that women are burning out and leaving their posts.

“Our research into wellbeing last year revealed that in 2023 some 46% of women in tech had experienced burnout. High rates of burnout and shorter average tenures for women are connected issues, and we have to work towards better long-term sustainability and a culture of true equity.”