Getting more聽women into the tech industry could generate billions for the UK, says entrepreneur Debbie Wosskow OBE.
Wosskow聽took property swap site Love Home Swap from conception to launch in three months in 2011. The platform is now home to a quarter of a million properties.
Speaking to an audience of over聽three hundred at the ‘Empowering Women with Tech’聽conference at聽Leeds International Festival, she talked about the benefits of getting more women into the industry.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a fantastically聽untapped asset class 鈥� if we can encourage more women to start businesses it will make a huge difference,鈥� she said.
鈥淭he stat is one in ten women say they want to start a business but don鈥檛. The other stat is that if they all did, that鈥檚 an extra 拢10bn per year to UK PLC.鈥�
She went on to say that currently only 10 per cent of all capital globally is allocated to businesses with a woman in its senior leadership team.
鈥淭he Pitchbook stat for the UK in 2016 was 2.17 per cent of all capital went to businesses with a female CEO,鈥� said Wosskow.
鈥淥n the other side of the table, only seven per cent of investors are women, yet against this slightly depressing backdrop, the data shows that women get 35 per cent better returns than men.鈥�
Wosskow, who started her聽first business at 25,聽came up with the idea for Love Home Swap after watching film聽The Holiday on the flight home from a bad聽getaway.
Her most recent endeavour, female-focused聽crowdfunding platform AllBright, launched in late 2016 and aims to support female-led companies in the UK.
鈥淎 lot of what you do in life is based on what you鈥檝e seen 鈥� so how can we get more women founding businesses and how can we invest more in women? It often means getting more female investors.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not anti-men, we鈥檙e just trying to change the conversation.鈥�
Anne-Marie Imafidon鈥檚 social enterprise Stemettes is also addressing the industry鈥檚 lack of diversity by helping girls create technology that relates to them.
鈥淎t our recent incubator girls were able to apply technology to problems that they see around them.
鈥淥ne of the girls聽had high-functioning autism so she built a recruitment site for high-functioning autistic people.
鈥淎nother had been in hospital so she set up a social network for young people who spend a lot of time in hospital.鈥�
Since its launch four years ago Stemettes has helped 15,000 girls across the country.
Imafidon says that success for the聽industry means focusing on diversity more broadly.
鈥淲e need different people 鈥� not necessarily just women 鈥� involved in building products,鈥� she said.
鈥淔or example, voice recognition didn鈥檛 take off until they included women鈥檚 voices. Apple鈥檚 assistant Siri still doesn鈥檛 understand Scottish people when they speak.鈥�
Head of technology at Sky Natasha Sayce-Zelem says that businesses must change the message and focus on what tech enables rather than the skills it requires.
鈥淧eople don鈥檛 know about jobs in tech 鈥� we need to signpost the different roles,鈥� she said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all about the messaging. It鈥檚 always 鈥榳hy we need more women who can code鈥� or 鈥榞et more women in tech鈥� 鈥� that鈥檚 boring to me and I actually work in tech. We need to focus on better positive messaging.鈥�
She asked the audience to compare the headlines 鈥榃e need more women working in healthcare tech鈥� and 鈥榃ant to work on projects that can save lives and make a difference?鈥�
鈥淲hich headline would you prefer?鈥� she asked.
鈥淚f companies focused more on what technology enables and how creative the industry is rather than the technical skills alone it would certainly attract more people to consider a career in digital.鈥�