The 21st century’s tech revolution has empowered women to reach the top of the leadership tree. In 2013, Sheryl Sandberg, a founder of Facebook and the chief operating officer at META, famously looked at the gender gap and encouraged women to ‘Lean In’. Since then, there has been a backlash at the misogyny of business cultures and an array of debate about how women can have successful and fulfilling careers.

Despite this record investment, innovation, and exponential growth in the tech sector, women are disappearing from senior leadership. Over the past decade, female representation at the top of UK tech firms has declined not improved.

While support for girls in STEM and early-career women’s representation is stronger than ever, something breaks as women move into senior decision-making roles. And until leaders change how power, opportunity, and accountability work at the top, the numbers won’t shift.

SHOCKING STATE GIVEN AI GROWTH

This is major concern being tackled by Emily Walters, Chief Growth Officer at Stellar Omada, one of Scotland’s leading technology and transformation groups.

“Scrolling LinkedIn, I was struck by a pattern in the conversations appearing in my feed. There were female founders struggling to secure funding; debates about the role of women on boards, discussions around women at the top of banking, and discussion about women in technology. What stopped me was the data showing that there are fewer women in senior technology roles in the UK today than there were a decade ago,” she told The Business.

This is a shocking situation given then massive rising of AI, and the potential for machine-learning technology to change the lives of women.

Walters felt this dip in women in C-suite positions was counterintuitive given the advances that have been made in the workplace.  For many years now, there have been initiatives encouraging girls into STEM subjects and the vitality of maths and science subjects.

“We have built graduate schemes, mentoring programmes and leadership initiatives. Organisations speak fluently about inclusion. Yet at senior levels, the numbers are not moving in the way many of us hoped they would.”

This, she said, suggests the challenge is not simply about entry into the sector. It is about progression, influence and power.

In a special event in Edinburgh at BGF’s The Bothy, a panel will be posing questions about what has caused this drop in women in technology.

 Ann Budge, OBE, the former chair of Heart of Midlothian Football Club, is the keynote speaker,  “She is one of the very few women in Scotland who has led at scale in tech, exited successfully, and chaired a Scottish Premiership football club. Her perspective matters and we’re delighted to have her involvement,” said Walters.

Among the subject posed will be: is the ‘sisterhood’ properly supportive and does it do enough for women? Are ‘male allies’ truly stepping forward, or staying comfortable? And are organisations prepared to examine power honestly?

Walters said: “I have spent my career in technology and digital transformation, working across customer experience, product, marketing and growth. I have built services and products, led teams, raised children, worked part-time, worked full-time, and navigated the constant recalibration that leadership demands. Like many women, I have experienced seasons where the juggle feels almost elegant, and others where it feels anything but.”

“Capability is rarely the issue. The women I know in this sector are talented, ambitious and resilient. But as roles become more senior, the terrain shifts. Visibility increases. Pressure intensifies. Decision-making becomes more political. Support structures can quietly thin just when they are most needed.

She says ‘community of interest’ often matters more than is acknowledged.

“Knowing whom you can trust, who will advocate for you in rooms you are not in, and who will challenge you constructively, all makes a profound difference. That support must come from other women, yes, but it must also come from men who recognise that equality is not a women’s issue, but a leadership one.”

“Through my role as Chief Growth Officer at Stellar Omada, we are bringing together a small group of senior leaders, women and men, not for a networking reception, but for a working session.”

With support from BGF, Cazenove Capital and Heart of Midlothian Football Club, the session will explore what is actually happening at senior levels in technology and propose tangible actions that can be taken.

“Colin Frame, our CEO at Stellar Omada, will also speak about male allyship from his own perspective, because this cannot be a conversation that happens in isolation.”

Throughout the session there will be insights referenced from key works on the subject by leading thinkers, including The Gender Index, by Sam Cooper-Gray, and Why Men Win at Work, by Gill Witty-Collins, as well as observations from Dr Vanessa Vallely, creator of WeAreTheCity and its sister organisation, WeAreTechWomen.  The whole afternoon will be soulfully soundtracked by DJ Lu AKA Janine Watson,

www.stellaruk.co.uk