Faces of the Partner: Is the Channel Still a Boys’ Club?

While many channel partners are making a genuine effort to promote equity in the workforce, there is still shocking lack of women in one area, compared to men: leadership. The fact is, there are still too few women in leadership positions in the IT channel.

“Generally speaking, there are too few women in IT, period,” noted Hege Støre, Group CEO of Nordic technology provider Advania Group. “The lack of women in leadership positions is a direct consequence of the under-representation of women in the industry.”

To be fair to the channel, a report from the World Economic Forum shows progress on the gender gap has stalled across all industries. However, aside from the problem of attracting women to tech, the perception still lingers of the channel as a boys’ club — a masculine, sales-driven environment.

Here we speak with five successful women who head up – and even founded – channel partners in EMEA. We ask them why they think there is such little representation of women at the board level in the channel. The answers range from masculine working cultures and unconscious bias when hiring, to a lack of role models in leadership positions and not encouraging women to engage in STEM education early enough.

We also ask them about their own experiences and what can be done to encourage more women to step into leadership in the channel.

Related:Faces of the Partner: Generation Z and the Channel

See the slideshow above to find out what the women channel leaders had to say.