Houston is ahead of the pack when it comes to equity in the technology industry, according to a new study.
Houston ranked No. 7 on SmartAsset's top cities for women in tech list, down from the No. 6 spot in 2020 and the No. 4 spot in 2019. The drop in rankings can be attributed to a year-over-year decline in income after housing costs. Women in tech in Houston earned a median income of $61,016 after accounting for housing costs in this year's study, down from $64,464 the previous year. The Houston region also saw a decline in the gender pay gap between men and women in the tech industry — from 99% in the 2020 report to 94% this year, according to SmartAsset.
Amid the declines in income and the local gender pay gap, Houston saw positive traction in the tech industry in the past year. The percentage of tech jobs filled by women in the Houston market grew from 25.8% in 2020 to 27.2% in 2021. The Houston region saw a 17% increase in tech employment from 2016 through 2019, according to SmartAsset data.
Houston is outperforming the national average for women in tech on a number of fronts. The national median income for women in tech after housing costs was $57,509, compared to $61,016 in Houston. Women account for 26.1% of all tech jobs nationally, compared to 27.2% in Houston. Houston's three-year tech employment growth of 17% is in-line with the national average, per SmartAsset data.
Several new efforts to promote local women in technology and female-founded companies have been established in Houston in recent months. Houston investor Carrie Colbert told the Houston Business Journal earlier in February that her venture firm, Curate Capital, was raising a $10 million fund to invest in women-owned businesses with female-focused products and services. Colbert expects to close Curate Capital Fund I to investors by the end of the first quarter.
Other organizations in Houston are working to level the playing field for female founders and generate returns for investors. The Artemis Fund launched in 2019 to make investments into female-founded startups. A network of female institutional investors in Houston — Women Investing in VC in Houston — organized in 2020 to connect local women in the investing space.
During 2020, venture capital funding into female-founded companies decreased by 27% year over year, according to Crunchbase.
