A recent survey of the UK’s capital has shown that the city is the place to be for female entrepreneurs, especially for those who want to start up a technology business.
Women benefiting from London’s tech hub status
Mortimer Spinks, the leading innovator in technology recruitment in the UK, conducted the survey, interviewing over 3,700 professionals. The results detailed that 40% of the female workforce in the UK worked in London and clearly showed that these women were over twice as likely to have a job working for a tech start-up than anywhere else in the UK. This should perhaps come as no surprise, given London’s status as a tech start-up hub.
More tech opportunities in London for women
On another positive note for women already working or wanting to work in the capital, the survey found that the tech community in London provided more, and better, opportunities. Of the tech businesses surveyed, 33% said they had schemes in place to ensure they recruited women. This is in direct comparison to tech companies outside of London where this figure stands at 25%.
Despite the good results detailed in the survey, it wasn’t all positive. The results of the survey also showed that of the tech firms in London, 10% did not employ any female workers, and over 50% of tech firms had less than 15% of females in their workforce.
The results found in the recent survey, echoed those found by Tech London Advocates, a private sector -led coalition made up of experts from the tech sector. Tech London Advocates’ data showed that of the tech firms in the capital, 18% still had no women on their boards.
Room for improvement
The founder of Tech London Advocates, Russ Shaw made the following comment on the results: “Despite a range of highly successful female founders and CEOs in London, senior roles and management teams at digital businesses have more of a ‘boys’ club’ factor.” He added that “For a sector driven by the need for highly skilled and creative talent, failing to harness those currently under-represented makes bad business sense.”
Both sets of data follow the recent article by Startup.co.uk, which focused on why we should stop talking about gender diversity issues and do something about them instead. A sentiment that Sadiq Khan, London’s newly elected Mayor, also recently spoke out about: “The capital is the most important tech hub in Europe with its vibrant mix of investors, talent and creativity. Although the sector is flourishing, it is vital that we actively encourage more girls to work in digital and tech to reverse the under-representation of women in this industry.”