The future of tech is inclusive – Are we ready?

March 8th is here, and with it comes the annual flood of panel discussions, LinkedIn posts, corporate pledges, and the obligatory stock photo of a diverse group of women smiling at a computer screen. (You know the one.). Yet, behind the glossy marketing campaigns, the reality remains stubbornly unchanged. Women in tech are still fighting an uphill battle, not because they lack the skills or ambition, but because the system wasn’t built with them in mind. The question isn’t whether women belong in tech. The question is: When will the industry catch up?

I still remember my first day in the office at Infosys. Fresh out of college, full of ambition, I walked into a meeting room where I was the only woman on my team. As the years passed, the number of women in the room increased, but the pattern didn’t change. I saw talented female colleagues hesitate before speaking, their ideas interrupted mid-sentence. I watched brilliant women leave, not because they weren’t capable, but because they were exhausted from navigating a system that wasn’t designed for them.

Let’s break it down. Women hold only 28% of tech roles globally, and in India, the number is slightly better at 34%. But the real problem starts at mid-career levels, women enter tech at promising rates, yet few make it to senior leadership. For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 87 women are promoted.

The leaky pipeline isn’t about women “opting out.” It’s about burnout from unequal opportunities, biased evaluations, outdated workplace structures, and let’s not forget the ever-popular “Oh, she’s having a baby? Guess she won’t be able to keep up.”,  that make it harder for women to stay and thrive. The industry needs more than just “awareness” campaigns; it needs a hard reset in how it hires, promotes, and retains talent.

Women Who Are Building the Future of Tech, Despite the Odds

Women in tech are not waiting for permission. They are creating their own spaces, founding billion-dollar startups, leading global AI breakthroughs, and shaping the digital future. Here are just a few game-changers:

Mira Murati – Former CTO of OpenAI, a key figure in developing ChatGPT and pushing the boundaries of AI innovation.

Debjani Ghosh – President of NASSCOM, India’s IT industry body, and a tireless advocate for women in tech leadership.

Reshma Saujani – Founder of Girls Who Code, which has helped hundreds of thousands of girls enter the tech world.

Roshni Nadar Malhotra – Chairperson of HCL Technologies and the first woman to lead a listed IT company in India.

Indra Nooyi – Former CEO of PepsiCo, who, while not in core tech, has been a leading advocate for women in leadership and STEM.

Fei-Fei Li – AI researcher and co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute, making sure the future of AI isn’t just shaped by men named John.

These women (and countless others) prove that when women lead in tech, they don’t just participate, they transform the industry. Now, the question is: 

What will it take for more women to get a fair shot?

A Systemic Problem Needs Systemic Solutions

Tech or any other industry isn’t just struggling with a diversity problem, it’s struggling with a design flaw. The workplace was built around outdated models of leadership, productivity, and career progression. Fixing this requires more than just hiring more women, it requires reshaping the entire ecosystem.

1. Mentorship & Sponsorship: Turn Allyship into Action

Women don’t just need mentors; they need sponsors—leaders who advocate for them in critical decisions, push for their promotions, and ensure they are given equal access to leadership tracks. Research shows that women with sponsors are 22% more likely to advance in their careers. Tech leaders must actively invest in sponsorship programs that go beyond generic career workshops and actually create pathways to leadership. Companies must audit their leadership pipelines, how many women are actually in line for the next big role? If the number is low, it’s not a pipeline problem, it’s a structural problem.

2. Rethink Performance Metrics: Reward Impact, Not Presence

It’s 2025. If your company still measures productivity by hours spent at a desk, you’re already behind. Performance evaluations need to focus on results, innovation, and leadership impact—not on outdated notions of who “looks” like a leader. Parental leave and flexible work policies must become default, not perks. If the pandemic proved anything, it’s that work isn’t about where you are, it’s about what you deliver.

3. Fighting Bias in AI & Hiring

Hiring algorithms, when trained on biased data, can filter out female candidates before they even get a shot. (And given how AI reflects society’s existing biases, it’s basically Sexism 2.0, now with machine learning!) Tech firms must audit hiring processes, ensure diverse hiring panels, and implement blind resume screening to prevent unconscious bias.

4. Change the Culture – No More ‘Culture Fit,’ It’s Time for ‘Culture Add’

The bro-culture stereotype in tech isn’t just a meme, it’s a real obstacle that makes workplaces less inclusive.  Companies need to stop hiring for ‘culture fit’ and start hiring for ‘culture add.’ The goal shouldn’t be to find people who fit into the existing mold but to bring in new voices, perspectives, and leadership styles. Bias training should be mandatory for hiring managers, not just a one-time checkbox exercise. This ensures that bias isn’t unconsciously influencing recruitment, promotions, and leadership development.

A Call to Action: More Than a Hashtag

So, as the world celebrates International Women’s Day with the usual We Support Women! posts, let’s push for real, measurable change.

• If you’re in a leadership role, sponsor a woman in your workplace.
• If you’re hiring, audit your hiring process for bias.
• If you’re a woman in tech, mentor someone who’s just starting out.

The future of technology isn’t just about better code or faster algorithms. It’s about who gets to shape it. And if the tech industry wants to be truly innovative, diverse, and successful, then women need to be at the center of that future,not just in the margins.

Now, who’s ready to rewrite the script?