Three Chicago Companies Are Named Best Workplaces for Women in Tech

At the Grace Hopper Conference, the largest gathering of female technologists in the world, held last week in Houston, Texas, there was some good news and bad news about the state of women in technology.

First, the bad news. The Anita Borg Institute, the nonprofit behind the Grace Hopper Conference released the results of their 2016 Top Companies for Women Technologists Findings & Insights report, and found just 21.7 percent of tech jobs across the 60 companies they surveyed were held by women, an increase of only .9 percent from last year. That number dropped when looking at leadership: Women hold just 14.5 percent of tech positions at the executive level. The companies had a total of 1.4 million US employees, including 552,000 technologists, across a range of 10 industries. 

We are not done, not by a long shot

The good news? Anita Borg highlighted the companies that are making strides toward recruiting, retaining and advancing women in technology. And three Chicago companies, ThoughtWorks, Grubhub and Allstate, made the Leadership Index, a list of top 25 companies that scored above the mean in representation from women in tech.

Companies on the Leadership Index all have policies that create a more inclusive environment, such as maternity and paternity leave, leadership programs and diversity training. Allstate has a Women in Technology at Allstate (WITA) group, as well as a mentorship program. Grubhub, where half the executive team and 43 percent of the company overall is female, offers paternity leave and "nobody thinks twice about taking it,” said Grubhub general counsel Margo Drucker to Fortune.

ThoughtWorks, a Chicago tech company, was named the top company for women in technology. 40.5 percent of ThoughtWorks' new recruits are women across all career levels, and that has translated to a workforce far more diverse than the average tech company: 46 percent of mid-level tech jobs, 30 percent of senior level tech jobs, and 23 percent of executive tech jobs are held by women at ThoughtWorks.

Though this is a major accomplishment when looking at the industry average, CTO Rebecca Parsons used her acceptance speech as a call to action. “I wish I was able to stand here and say we’ve solved the gender gap,” Parsons said. “Though things are much better than they were years ago, we know that’s not the case.”

“Now is not the time for us to rest on our laurels, let’s redouble our efforts as one community,” she added. “We are not done, not by a long shot."

Here's a look at the best companies for women in tech: (Note: This is not a ranking, companies listed alphabetically)

This story was written as part of a Women in Tech fellowship sponsored by the GroundTruth Project and SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Other stories reported from the Anita Borg Institute’s Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference in Houston can be found at the TechTruth Women in Tech site.