BARCELONA - The role of women in technology is widely discussed and assessed around the world. Although significant progress has been made over the last decade, women still have a way to go to reach real equality with men in the workforce, and more specifically in the technology sector.
According to Silicon Valley Bank, only one in four startups have a female founder. 37 percent of startups have at least one woman on the board of directors and 53 percent have at least one woman in an executive position.
In the United States, women have been inching up to make up 46.8 percent of the general workforce, whereas that number is significantly lower in the tech space. Only about 25% of the top 5 tech companies (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft) are female. However, women in leadership positions in tech are on par with the national average.
The good news is that women in leadership positions in tech have grown significantly. According to Crunchbase, the proportion of female-founded startups has doubled from 2009, with 21 female-founded unicorns in 2019, compared to only 15 in the year before.
While looking at the numbers for female leadership is one gauge of progress, it is also important to analyze the success of women-led companies. Studies have shown that women-led organizations perform better than male-only ones. UK-based The Pipeline’s Women Count 2020 Report found that companies (UK-based) with executive committees where more than 33 percent are made up of women have ten times more profit margins than companies that don’t.
One of the key reasons behind successful women-led businesses, is that women are more likely to practice allyship and are more positive in communicating and relating a company’s mission and achieving company’s goals, as well as inspiring more trust and belief in an organization’s product or service. This ability to champion on an internal and external level creates more
engagement in the business and boosts overall success.
These stats on the rise of women in startup leadership positions signifies important momentum and indicator of change. VRTECH, now managed by an all-female team, strives to distinguish and celebrate the women in leadership roles specifically in the vacation rental industry.
VRTECH has published a list of the Top Female CEOs of the Vacation Rental Tech Companies. This prestigious list has 20 CEOs and the major themes heard in respect to their successes are business creativity and ability to think outside the box, solution-oriented thinking, enthusiasm for their people and teams, and utmost support for diversity.
The allyship that women tend to have is shown by CEO and Co-Founder of Hostfully, Margot Lee Schmorak. In response to what is her biggest achievement, she says, "Building a company culture at Hostfully where innovative products are built, where people feel valued for their unique perspective, and where employees can balance between work and other parts of their lives."
Yaa Priscilla Birago, Co-Founder and CEO at Femmebnb, does what she does in order ‘to maximize safety and peace of mind, empower women economically and encourage them to explore the world on their own terms, fearlessly.’
This spirit of steadfast support for their teams and enthusiasm for diversity movements will propel women’s leadership roles in the vacation rental tech industry in the future.
Tags: VRTECH
