Vargo sat down with Marija Ziterbart from The Lowdown and Tilde Loop to chat about all things Women in Tech.

Marija delved into some interesting topics regarding the lack of female leadership in tech, her take on the imbalance of men and women in the industry, and the lack of investment into femtech companies.

Marija is an experienced software engineer, who has many years of experience working in various developer roles. Currently, she is the managing director of Tilde Loop and more recently, CTO of The Lowdown.

Female Leadership in Tech

As our campaign largely focuses on engaging more women in the tech industry, specifically within technical roles, we asked Marija for her thoughts regarding the representation of women in development teams.

Marija feels the real challenge lies in encouraging women into higher levels of leadership: “We’ve made great progress with female applications for junior or mid-level roles. Now, we really need women to feel they can reach their true potential by moving into higher level and leadership roles.”

As of January 2021, women make up just 5% of C Suite positions in Europe*.

Marija believes the issue isn’t unique to the tech industry alone – a lack of confidence has big part to play. In fact, women are often more hesitant to apply for roles if they feel they don’t fit 100% of the job description**. Marija has certainly found this to be the case when hiring for her teams.

There are many ways to help alleviate the imbalance of females in leadership roles. One of which is giving female leaders in the tech industry much more visibility to help normalise higher levels of success for young women. The industry is making great strides in getting more women interested in tech generally but now it’s time to showcase the women at the top, we need to show that this level of success is totally attainable.

Gender imbalance in Tech

There has been a massive push to increase the number of women in STEM over the past few decades. The introduction of remote learning, virtual events and discussion groups has helped to encourage and support women wanting to break into the tech industry.

Whilst such activities are great for encouraging more women into the industry, Marija questions the practicality of women-focused coding initiatives and states: “Women-only events, slack groups and meet-up groups are all great but with learning to code – it’s different”.

Women-only coding courses can create a sandbox environment, which doesn’t mimic the reality of development teams which are, in most cases, male-dominated. “In the workplace, it may not be realistic to be surrounded by other female coders, who are always there to empower you. Whilst it may feel great as a learning environment, it doesn’t necessarily prepare you for the real working world. Female developers need to feel comfortable working in a male-dominated environment.” explains Marija.

“The same can be said when seeking out instructors or mentors. It can be really tempting to consider only women but choosing a mentor should be based on credentials, not gender. Attending opportunities that are open to all sexes, (and not just women exclusively) will help to better prepare women for male-dominated environments. Taking this approach to learning could help to increase the number of female leaders in the tech space.”

Femtech Investment

Marija explains that health tech has been underdeveloped in terms of R&D for the last 10 years when compared with other areas of technology and has only just begun to pick up the pace. According to the Mercom Capital Group, $21.6 billion was invested into digital health companies in 2020, almost four times the investment figure in 2016***.

Marija suggests more investment is needed in the health tech space – specifically towards companies with a focus on women’s health. “Companies such as The Lowdown can provide support and education for women with health questions or concerns. This is particularly useful as data regarding female health is lacking.”

The Lowdown is proud to have a 50/50 gender split of investors on its cap table, including Marta-Gaia Zanchi (General Partner at Nina Capital) and four female angels from the Atomico Angel programme. That being said, The Lowdown is unusual and the lack of investment from women may impede the growth of female-focused health tech companies due to a lack of understanding of feminine health amongst men.

About Vargo Group

Vargo helps businesses find better candidates, faster. We work with the most talented individuals in the market, offering Permanent & Interim resource across tech, finance and marketing. Our approach is agile and proactive; we thrive on helping businesses to scale and grow by connecting them with the best talent across the UK and Internationally.

About The Lowdown

The Lowdown is the UK’s leading sexual and reproductive health platform which puts women in control of their healthcare decisions. Powered by community, advice and prescriptions, it’s used by over 60,000 women every month and using this unique community led approach to make women’s health less of a minefield.

About Tilde Loop

Tilde Loop is a London-based software development company comprised of experienced engineers, specialising in the JavaScript ecosystem and modern application development. They help organisations accelerate their software development. They’re doing it by joining your team and contributing through the whole software development lifecycle, from requirements definition to successful delivery. Their software engineers are combining their knowledge with your ideas to create seamless digital experiences.

Sources:

*https://www.pwc.co.uk/who-we-are/women-in-technology/time-to-close-the-gender-gap.html
**https://www.movemeon.com/insight/why-women-dont-apply-to-jobs/#:~:text=Women%20are%2036%25%20more%20likely,by%20people%20moving%20between%20jobs.
***https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/blog/health-care-blog/2021/health-tech-investment-trends-a-view-into-the-future-of-health.html