Women in Tech - Whitney Wolfe Herd

International Women’s Day is a day to highlight women who have been instrumental in advancing the rights of women within society. From the early days of feminism, the likes of the suffragettes fought for equal rights and equal votes for women. But in today’s society, women are underrepresented in almost all sectors of work and daily life. Today, our Technology Recruitment Executive Sam Such takes a look at a woman who has broken the glass ceiling and become a prominent force in the world of tech business.

Whitney Wolfe Herd, best known for being the founder and CEO of Bumble, became the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire in 2021! Her vision of a female-focused dating app achieved 15 million conversations and 80 million matches within its first year!

Whitney’s rise to the top was not without trepidation. Before founding Bumble, Whitney became the Vice President of Marketing for Tinder. Her branding has been attributed to the now world-famous Tinder ‘flame’ icon and the brand name itself.

After leaving the company in 2014 due to increasing tensions with company executives, she subsequently filed a lawsuit against Tinder for sexual harassment, which was later settled out of court. This challenging experience at Tinder helped Whitney’s entrepreneurial journey, as she then moved to Austin, Texas and founded Bumble. Since then, Whitney has amassed a net worth of over 1.6 billion dollars. Whitney also became the youngest woman to take a company public at the age of 31! This remarkable achievement is made even more remarkable when you consider how male self-made billionaires currently outnumber women 20 to 1. Once the articles regarding Bumble’s woman-led management were released, Whitney replied with “hopefully this will not be a rare headline. Hopefully this will be the norm. It’s the right thing to do, it’s a priority for us and it should be a priority for everyone else’.  Bumble’s success is even more admirable when paired with the uncomfortable fact that women led start ups receive a lower share of funding – even though studies provide evidence that they generate more revenue.

Despite Whitney being on top of the mountain, women on the whole can be seen as a minority. A recent Tech Nation report showed that 77% of tech director roles are filled by men. It also showed that just 19% of the tech workforce are women. That figure is even less for black and Hispanic women who make up 3% and Asian women who make up 5%. Also, in the UK, recent research by the Women in Technology Survey 2019 has revealed that 60% of women agreed there was a gender pay gap within the technology sector - with men earning a higher salary.  

Many have wondered what can be done to fix the inequality within the technology industry. The BBC launched a scheme in 2019 where they hired a large number of women to move into a career in software engineering. The BBC’s CTO and Product Officer, Matthew Postgate, said they wanted “to ensure that everyone can shape the future of technology. This scheme gives the perfect grounding to women from all walks of life for a new career in technology”.

What do you think could be done to help empower women in Tech? Do you know any schemes or incentives to encourage more women to join this growing industry? Let us know!

Check out all our job opportunities in Technology here!

Read our latest news here.

Check out our digital jobs here.

Learn more about our marketing roles here.

Fancy a new analytics challenge? Click here! 

If it’s creative roles that you are after, click here.

Progress your career with a brand new Contract role? Click here!

To get the very latest jobs, news and blogs follow The Candidate on Linkedin here!