The other week, straight from the office, we had a girls’ night. Bubbles, laughter, and the kind of conversation that only happens when a group of women gets together off the clock. We started with jokes, but somewhere between the second glass and the deeper stuff, I realised something that made me stop.

We were a solid crowd, and a lot of us had only started our journeys with the company recently. That made me dig into the data. And how proud was I to see that this year alone, we’ve hired approximately 160% more women into our company compared to last year – and it’s only June.
Full transparency: this also includes future colleagues who haven’t started yet but have already signed their contracts -because yes, I like to measure time to fill, not just time to hire. But that’s a topic for another article.

That moment stayed with me.

Because I read all the reports, track all the metrics, and see so many companies promising better. Yet I felt joy – knowing we hadn’t set out to hit a number. No quota. No glamorous campaign. We just do the work.

We hired women into meaningful roles across tech and product, not because they were women, but because they were the best people for the job. And I don’t want to turn this month’s article into one of those flashy campaigns I mentioned above, but safe to say: we have a strong team. And I’m committed to continuing this – regardless of how people identify – as long as they’re the best fit for the role.

Looking Beyond the Macro

At a global level, the conversation around women in tech in 2025 hasn’t changed as much as it should have. According to WomenTech, women still make up just 27–35% of the tech workforce. Even in more progressive areas like product management, representation in Europe remains around 39%, based on data from Startups Magazine.

Deloitte’s Women @ Work report from 2024 was even more discouraging. Only 11% of women believe their company is acting on gender equality. Nearly half have experienced microaggressions or worse. Hybrid work hasn’t solved the issue of inclusion, in many cases, it’s simply made exclusion less visible. One in three hybrid-working women report being left out of key meetings. The stats haven’t moved. The stress hasn’t eased. And culture remains the silent killer of ambition.

So What Makes the Difference for Us?

It goes beyond a DEI initiative or a press release. It’s consistency.

We constantly work on identifying if and where bias might show up – whether in sourcing, in job descriptions, or in how we assess potential vs. pedigree. And maybe most importantly, we’ve stopped making women prove they deserve to be there. We follow a structured and objective evaluation system, and we look past names, status, nationality, and gender.

Progress doesn’t happen when we only say the right things. It happens when we put intention into how we operate.

Retention Needs to Match Representation

Of course, hiring is just step one. Culture eats numbers for breakfast. The same Deloitte study found that only 1 in 10 women feel they can talk openly about work-life balance. 95% believe taking advantage of flexible options will hurt their chances at promotion. And women who are primary earners still carry the majority of domestic responsibilities – leading to burnout, career stagnation, or opting out entirely.

We’re not immune to this. We’ve got more women in the room now, but if the room doesn’t adapt, they won’t stay.

What I Hope Others Take From This

If you’re a founder, a hiring manager, or working in people ops, here’s my message: don’t wait for the industry to change. Fix your own house first. You can absolutely move the needle, and you don’t need a perfect playbook to start. You need curiosity, consistency, and a bit of discomfort.

Change happens when no one’s watching. And sometimes, it takes a glass of wine and a conversation to realise that what you’re building is actually working – that women feel seen, supported, and chosen not for optics, but for value.

We’re not done. But we’re not where we were. And that’s worth sharing.

To every team out there doing the work quietly: keep going. Because it shows. Even when you’re not counting, the impact counts.