Nearly half of women working in technology feel increasing pressure to choose between their career and a family, according to a new report.

Web Summit’s annual Women in Tech survey found that 49% of women felt that balancing a career and personal life is becoming more difficult, a seven per cent increase from last year, with a similar number saying they have experienced sexism at work in the last year (50%). 

The report, based on findings from 1,000 respondents from around the world, showed that 55.9% of women in technology believe that the industry is not doing enough to tackle gender inequality, and 69% are dissatisfied with their government’s approach to fixing inequality in the technology sector.

More than 75% of respondents acknowledged feeling the need to work harder than their male counterparts, a trend that has remained steady over time, while half said that they were unfairly paid in comparison to male peers.

Among the other most pressing challenges women said they faced were unconscious gender bias (64%), a lack of women in leadership roles (53%), and imposter syndrome (49%).

The survey also found a serious lack of company initiatives aimed at tackling gender equality, with 65% of respondents saying their organisation offered no such programmes, and of those that do, 60% of women said these programmes are only ‘somewhat effective’. 

Despite these challenges, the majority of women (75%) said they still felt empowered to pursue and hold a leadership role, and a similar number (77%) felt that they were generally respected by their peers.

The figures show that more women than ever are in management roles, with 80% saying that there was a woman among the senior management in their company.

Meanwhile, Web Summit reported that the number of women founded startups is growing, with 45% of the 1,000 startups at their Rio 2024 conference having a woman founder, although close to a third of respondents (29%) identified underfunding as one of the most pressing issues facing women in tech.

“It’s frustrating that issues like sexism, unfair pay, imposter syndrome, and work-life balance keep appearing—it often feels like we’re stuck in the same conversations. Yet, I can’t help but feel hopeful. More women are stepping up, leading, and bringing their startups to events like Web Summit,” said Carolyn Quinlan, VP of community at Web Summit.

Recommended reading

• Five Barriers Obstructing Women in Tech
• Why Are Women Leaving Tech? Instead, Ask Why They Should Stay
• Women in STEM Not Immune to Sexism

There does appear to be a concerning backward trend, at least in some areas of the technology sector, when it comes to gender inequality. A new study based on Office of National Statistics data in the UK has found that 53,600 out of 65,000 UK cybersecurity professionals today are men, with the number of women in similar roles falling from 23.8% to 17.5% over the last three years.

Also in the UK, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, called on the government to address the gender gap within the tech sector in a letter to technology secretary Peter Kyle, with the professional body claiming that over half a million women are ‘missing’ from the IT profession.