Every year, between 40,000 and 60,000 women leave tech roles in the UK. Read that again. Not women who never entered the industry – women who did, and then left. That’s not just a diversity statistic. It’s a leadership problem, an innovation problem, and increasingly, an economic one.
To understand what’s really going on – and what needs to change – UC Today sat down with Emily Hall-Strutt, Founder Director of Next Tech Girls, an organisation that connects girls and young women from underrepresented backgrounds to real careers in technology. What followed was one of the most honest conversations on this topic in years.
Women in Tech: Why the Pipeline Problem Starts Earlier Than You Think
Ask most people why there aren’t more women in tech, and they’ll point to a lack of interest. Emily Hall-Strutt has spent years speaking to young women, educators, and employers – and she’s found that framing to be almost entirely wrong.
“I’m discovering it’s less about a lack of interest and much more about a lack of understanding of what working in tech actually means… The types of roles that exist are shrouded in mystery. And then there are the stereotypes – tech being all about coding, tech being for boys – that really don’t help.”
The result is a generation of young women who could thrive in tech, but never make it to the starting line – not because they don’t want to, but because no one ever showed them the door.
Gender Diversity in Technology: The Confidence and Access Gap
Here’s what often gets missed in the women-in-tech conversation: inspiration, while important, isn’t the biggest blocker. Emily is clear on this.
“The bigger gap isn’t actually inspiration. It’s confidence, it’s opportunity, it’s access.”
And the timing couldn’t be worse. Early careers opportunities in tech have shrunk significantly over the last two years – post-Covid contraction, market shifts, and the growing influence of AI on hiring have all contributed. The result? Young women who’ve done everything right – built the skills, gained the qualifications, developed the interest – are still struggling to get that first foot in the door.
“We’re working with hundreds, even thousands, of young women who’ve decided they want to be in tech. But actually being able to get that entry-level role is becoming increasingly difficult.”
Related Articles
Is Your Wellbeing Strategy Quietly Increasing Burnout Instead of Reducing It?
Are Annual Engagement Surveys Already Obsolete?
AI, Women In Tech, Inclusion And The Human Future Of Employee Engagement
Role Models for Women in Tech: Why Proximity Matters More Than Fame
A striking statistic frames this challenge well: 78% of A-level and university students surveyed couldn’t name a single famous woman in tech. If girls can’t see women leading in the industry, how do they begin to imagine themselves there?
Emily’s answer was nuanced. Visibility alone isn’t the whole story – people find their way into roles they’d never imagined all the time. But relatable role models still play a hugely important part in helping young women see tech as a realistic and attainable option, particularly when those role models feel close to home. She explained that:
“You need to see people you can actually relate to. It’s a lot easier to imagine yourself doing something when you can see someone like you doing it – especially if they’re only a few years older than you. It feels attainable.”
That’s why Next Tech Girls deliberately platforms women who are interns, apprentices, or recent graduates – not just polished executives – as well as women from a wide range of ethnic, religious, socio-economic and educational backgrounds. The goal is simple: every girl who attends an event should see someone who looks, in some way, like her.
How to Retain Women in Tech: Culture, Sponsorship, and Fixing the Leaky Pipe
Getting women into the industry is only half the battle. Keeping them there – and helping them progress – is where many organisations are still falling short. Only 5% of tech leadership roles are held by women. That number hasn’t shifted fast enough, and Emily has a clear view on why.
The Lovelace Report, published last year by We Are Tech Women and Oliver Wyman, identified the two biggest reasons women leave tech: lack of progression opportunities and lack of sponsorship. Emily sees this play out regularly.
“There’s a lack of women in those senior roles who can actively sponsor other women coming up behind them,”
Sponsorship, she noted, tends to happen organically through existing networks and relationships – which means women, who are often outside those established circles, can find themselves at a structural disadvantage when it comes to accessing the advocacy that drives careers forward.
The result is a gap that compounds over time. Women enter the industry, hit a ceiling, and leave – not because they lack ambition or ability, but because the networks that drive progression simply aren’t equally accessible to them.
The fix, she argued, has to come from the top. Organisations need to audit their own data – not just at the headline level, but by role type, seniority, and retention rate. Some companies have strong early careers intake but lose women within a decade. Others have senior female leaders but almost no women in technical roles. The problem looks different in every organisation, and the solution has to match.
Women in Tech Leadership: Why Empathy Is the Edge, Not the Weakness
One of the most compelling parts of the conversation touched on leadership itself – specifically, the bias that still pushes women in senior tech roles to adopt more stereotypically “masculine” traits to be taken seriously.
Emily is optimistic that this is changing, and she pointed to an unlikely catalyst: AI. She said that
“As AI integrates itself more and more, how do we stand out as individual contributors? Empathy is a massive part of that. The bits that employers will still need humans for are going to be relationship building, people management – the things that women tend to really excel at.”
Her argument is that the AI era could actually revalue the so-called “soft skills” that have long been underestimated in tech – and in doing so, create an environment where the traits women bring to leadership are finally recognised as competitive advantages rather than professional liabilities.
What Meaningful Progress Actually Looks Like
When asked what her North Star looks like, Emily’s answer was disarming in its simplicity.
“For organisations like mine not being needed anymore. I would love to get to a point where we don’t even talk about someone as ‘a woman in tech.’ Just: she’s a software developer. And for that to be completely normal.”
For enterprise leaders who want to support that mission but don’t know where to start, Emily’s advice is straightforward: start with the data. Cut it by level, by function, by tenure. Talk to the people already in the organisation. Understand where women are being lost, and then work with organisations – like Next Tech Girls – that are already sitting on pipelines of motivated, qualified candidates who are ready to contribute.
The business case has been made. Diverse teams at leadership level outperform. The only question left is whether the industry is willing to stop treating this as a side initiative and start treating it as what it actually is – a fundamental requirement for building technology that works for everyone.
Next Tech Fest 2026: Bringing the Future of Tech to Life
For anyone who wants to see this mission in action, Next Tech Fest is the place to be.
What Is Next Tech Fest and When Is It Taking Place?
Next Tech Fest is Next Tech Girls’ flagship annual event, taking place on 29 July 2026 at CodeNode in London. It brings together hundreds of girls and young women with employers, role models and industry leaders for a day of workshops, panels, mentoring, networking and career insights.
Who Is It For and Why Should Someone Attend?
The event is designed for girls and young women aged 16-25 who want to explore careers in tech and connect directly with employers. Last year, we had more than 350 attendees from 97 educational institutions, with 86% coming from ethnic backgrounds that are underrepresented in tech and 96% leaving feeling confident about pursuing a career in the industry.
What Conversations and Themes Are You Expecting to Dominate the Day?
AI will undoubtedly be a major focus, alongside cyber security, digital transformation (particularly in the public sector), emerging technologies, employability and the many different routes into tech careers. A key theme will be ensuring future opportunities in tech are accessible to everyone.
How Can You Sign Up?
Free tickets will be released in the coming weeks, with priority access given to members of the Next Tech Girls community. Students, parents and educators can join the mailing list via the Next Tech Girls website to be among the first to hear when registration opens.
Employers interested in sponsoring, exhibiting, speaking or mentoring at the event can connect with Emily on LinkedIn to learn more about the remaining opportunities.
To read more about talent and employee experience, read UC Today’s ultimate guide
