By Sarah Wenger
It's time for the old adage that women neither like nor do well
in math and science be put to rest …
Women are increasingly involved in the tech field, both as
consumers and as practitioners, which shouldn't come as a surprise
since over half of social media users are women and the average
social gamer is a woman in her 40s.
This trend is also reflected in education. Of the
computer science majors graduating in 2013 from
Harvard, women make up 41%. And although only 25% of
science, tech, engineering and math (STEM) jobs are
currently held by women, the numbers are beginning to shift.
Between January of 2011 and 2012, the number of women in the IT
field jumped by more than 28%.
The benefits for women who enter tech are hard to deny. They
experience smaller wage gaps due to gender than women in other
industries. But the relationship between women and tech companies
isn't one-sided - the companies get some nice perks, too. Companies
whose boards of directors contain 3 or more female members had
higher returns on sales, returns on investments and returns on
equity.
The infographic below delves deeper into how the phenomenon of
women in tech is on the rise.
Click here to see the graphic!
Editor's Note: See also Richard Branson's
compelling argument on "Why We Need More Women in the
Boardroom."