As women remain significantly outnumbered by men in technology and entrepreneur fundraising, these entrepreneurs shared what it means to be a woman in tech.
During day two of the Luxembourg Venture Days, a panel of businesswomen and technology evangelists discussed the under-representation of women in technology jobs and startups.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report, published in June 2023, women occupy under a third of workers in tech roles, and only a quarter in Luxembourg. In startups, the picture is no better. A Luxinnovation survey found that women-founded or co-founded startups made up 6% of the estimated 550 startups in the country. And globally, only 3% of VC investment makes it into startups with a woman founder or co-founder.
With tech skills in hot demand in the grand duchy and the world over, and evidence showing that women-led companies tend to perform better than those helmed by a male CEO, the case for gender equity could not be stronger. But, barriers remain.
“We’re not doing enough in this ecosystem and we must realise that there’s still so much we can do,” said Marina Andrieu, managing director of Women in Digital Empowerment, a social impact company focused on technology training. She added: “We need more support for women. It can’t stay the way it is. We need to take this issue more seriously and turn this problem into an opportunity.”
Among the barriers highlighted in the Women And Tech panel were a lack of role models, limiting stereotypes and education, although the latter is now changing with the activities of players like the Luxembourg Tech School, offering co-ed coding and entrepreneurship skills.
Role models
“What’s causing this gap? Biases and stereotypes that women don’t belong in technology careers and the lack of female role models. When I started my career in a Big 4 company, I told myself ‘in 10 years, I want to be a partner!’ Then I looked at the partners and realised I didn’t want to be like these people. They didn’t look like me,” said co-managing director of Girls in Tech Luxembourg Patricia Souza.
The panel’s experts offered hope that excellent role models do exist. But they did not water down how challenging the experience of running a company can be. Elodie Trojanowski, who recently sold her tech IT consultancy Lux Factory, was left holding the baby when her co-founder suddenly passed away three years ago.
“Growth is important when you’re a startup but please take into consideration risk management and putting in place good practices,” she warned.
Sexism and flexibility
Györgyi Szakmar, who founded education app EduGamiTech to teach children, explained she had made the difficult decision to pivot and offer the platform for adults. “Even if you have the drive and vision and really believe that you’re going to change the world, there will be times you feel down, when you don’t get funded, when you enter the room and people look behind you to see where the boss is,” she said.
Zineb Bensaïd Chief Knowledge Officer and founder of Dealfox, a marketplace for sourcing investment opportunities, talked of juggling work and private life as an entrepreneur. “I created Dealfox as a single mother. I think here the main challenge is time management.” She found that delegating household tasks, for example by hiring a cleaner, enabled her to focus her non-work time on family.
But, she also pointed out an advantage that entrepreneurship offers: “As an entrepreneur, you can have the kind of flexibility that employees don’t have.”
Education
Much of the discussion touched upon awareness raising among adults and education. Luxembourg Tech School director Anush Manukyan. “The key is education and especially starting from a younger age. Because you begin to have these reflections of what you want to do at a young age.”
Ekaterina Bereziy of ExoAtlet, an exoskeleton rehabilitation scale-up, agreed. “From my point of view, it is more important to know exactly what you would like to achieve,” she said, adding that schools, universities and families all have a role to play in showing girls and young women the opportunities in tech.
