Paul Fletcher highlights female telecom leaders in the context of gender inequality in the tech industry

Shadow Minister for Science, Arts, Government Services and the Digital Economy Paul Fletcher highlighted the positions of two female technology leaders in response to a question about the closure of the Boosting Female Founders (BFF) programme.

At the TechLeaders conference in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales last weekend SmartCompany asked Minister Fletcher about the closure of the program, which was quietly ended by Labor earlier this year, leaving millions of dollars in allocated funds unspent.

The Boosting Female Founders initiative was originally launched by the Coalition in 2020 to help address the huge investment gap in women-led businesses in the private sector.

And that gap still exists.

Cut Through Venture’s latest funding report found that investment in female-founded startups fell to its lowest level since 2019. It also found that 20% of all investments went to women or mixed-gender teams, but most of these were at the pre-seed or seed stage, with the median deal size being just $1.4 million.

Fletcher was asked whether the closure of programs like BFF could impact women’s chances of employment in the tech industry, including in management positions.

“We don’t think all the expertise is in Canberra. And without getting into the specifics of that particular program, I would say there are a lot of good initiatives happening in the technology sector,” Minister Fletcher said on Sunday.

He then pointed to two women in management positions.

“I think it’s worth celebrating, for example, that the CEO of Telstra is Vicki Brady, a former colleague of mine at Optus and a constituent of mine. We have a woman CEO of Telstra, we have a woman chair of the NBN. I think it’s good that we have a woman as the Minister for Communications at the moment,” Fletcher said.

“So I think we’ve made progress. But of course there’s still a lot to do.”

Two successful women in telecoms won’t solve the gender equality problem in tech

Fletcher’s response failed to address broader concerns about the future of gender equality in the tech sector, particularly in the wake of the end of the BFF program.

The program, launched in 2020 with a budget of $52.2 million, aimed to support women-led startups through grants with matching funding and mentoring.

Despite its potential, the scheme has struggled under two governments, with Labour citing a lack of measurable impact on the wider startup ecosystem as the reason for its closure.

Experts in the field say the closure of BFF is a major blow to women in tech, especially in an industry that has long struggled with gender imbalance.

While Fletcher pointed to the successes of a few women in senior roles, that doesn’t address the systemic issues that many women face in the tech industry, including at the startup level.

We are also facing a period in which fewer young people are enrolling in computer technology-related courses.

A recent report by the Australian National University revealed a significant decline in the number of students enrolling in information and computing technology (ICT) subjects in Years 11 and 12, resulting in fewer students pursuing ICT in their further education and careers.

According to a 2021 report by the Australian Computer Society, only 29% of the technology workforce in Australia is female.

The report also found that women are severely underrepresented in leadership positions in the industry, making up just 18% of CEOs and 22% of board members at technology companies.

If you look closely, there is still a gender pay gap problem in Australia.

According to data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), even when women hold the highest-paid positions in companies, they often earn less than their male colleagues.

The median annual salary of women is 14.5% lower than that of men, and this gap increases to 19% when bonuses and overtime are taken into account.

Looking specifically at Telstra, the median gender pay gap is 20.2%.

This disparity highlights that the presence of a few women in leadership positions does not equate to widespread gender equality in the industry. The broader issue of ensuring that women at all levels of tech are supported and paid fairly remains unaddressed.

The closure of the BFF program and the response from both sides of the political spectrum reinforce serious concerns about the future of gender equality in the Australian tech industry.

While a few women may rise to the top, the broader goal of increasing women’s overall participation in tech remains unmet. The loss of targeted programs like BFF only widens the gap.

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