10 Women-Friendly Tech Startups

Ten startups released numbers showing how women-friendly they are, as part of the launch of San Francisco startup Doxa.

We’re talking pay gaps, percentage of women at the company (and in tech and leadership), maternity leave, and who gets promoted.

Kiva, for example, boasts 55% women at the company. At Shyp and DoubleDutch, more women get raises than men. Keen IO has an impressive maternity package, including 6 months paid leave, $1,000 in “baby cash,” and $250 per month toward child care costs.

Doxa‘s goal is to help women find equitable places to work that fit their personality. Women can take a personality test and browse company profiles not just by women-friendliness, but also by factors like hours and vacation days, happiness and interconnectedness, average tenure and upward mobility, amount of busy work and meetings per week, and average age. Finding the right place to work is so important because women who quit sometimes don’t just quit the company – they quit the tech industry altogether.

“The last time I was sexually harassed at a tech company, I felt I had two choices. Fix this single error at a single company or address the underlying root of the problem at a higher level,” says founder Nathalie Miller. “I chose the latter. After all, what use is putting one person in his place when his behavior reflects the state of the broader industry?”

Doxa's data come from surveys of employees, and they insist on collecting 60 responses before a profile can go public. In addition to the 10 partner companies below, they are currently collecting data on Facebook, Twitter, Uber, Intel, and Box.

I call these startups “women-friendly” not because their numbers are all impressive, but because they have committed to improvement by making them public. Here they are:

Lyft

  • Women: 39%
  • Women on the tech team: 13%
  • Women executives: 47%
  • Women in leadership: N/A
  • Pay gap: 7 cents on the dollar
  • Maternity leave: 12 weeks paid
  • Paternity leave: 3 weeks paid + 55% salary for 3 more weeks
  • Who gets the raises (last 3 years): 2:1 men
  • Women who feel coworkers value their opinion: 81%

Shyp

  • Women: 23%
  • Women on the tech team: 20%
  • Women executives: 33%
  • Women in leadership: 5%
  • Pay gap: 27 cents on the dollar
  • Maternity leave: 15 weeks paid
  • Paternity leave: 4 weeks paid
  • Who gets the raises: 3:2 women
  • Women who feel coworkers value their opinion: 55%

Kiva

  • Women: 55%
  • Women on the tech team: 21%
  • Women executives: 25%
  • Women in leadership: 36%
  • Pay gap: 21 cents on the dollar
  • Maternity leave: 12 weeks paid (4 weeks for adoption)
  • Paternity leave: 4 weeks paid
  • Who gets the raises: 3:2 men
  • Women who feel coworkers value their opinion: 87%

Keen IO

  • Women: 33%
  • Women on the tech team: 36%
  • Women executives: N/A
  • Women in leadership: 44%
  • Pay gap: 15 cents on the dollar
  • Maternity leave: 6 months + $1,000 baby cash + $250/month childcare costs + $5,000 adoption costs 
  • Paternity leave: Same
  • Who gets the raises: Men and women (1:1)
  • Women who feel coworkers value their opinion: 88%

DoubleDutch

  • Women: 38%
  • Women on the tech team: 17%
  • Women executives: N/A
  • Women in leadership: 25%
  • Pay gap: 9 cents on the dollar
  • Maternity leave: 12 weeks paid
  • Paternity leave: 2 weeks paid
  • Who gets the raises: 4:3 women
  • Women who feel coworkers value their opinion: 74%

Automattic

  • Women: 24%
  • Women on the tech team: 11%
  • Women executives: N/A
  • Women in leadership: 20%
  • Pay gap: 13 cents on the dollar
  • Maternity leave: Typically 4-6 months
  • Paternity leave: Typically 2 weeks-4 months
  • Who gets the raises: Men and women (1:1)
  • Women who feel coworkers value their opinion: 67%

Instacart

  • Women: 40%
  • Women on the tech team: 5%
  • Women executives: 0%
  • Women in leadership: 13%
  • Pay gap: 36 cents on the dollar
  • Maternity leave: None
  • Paternity leave: None
  • Who gets the raises: Men and women (1:1)
  • Women who feel coworkers value their opinion: 91%

TaskRabbit

  • Women: 43%
  • Women on the tech team: 9%
  • Women executives: 43%
  • Women in leadership: 36%
  • Pay gap: 23 cents on the dollar
  • Maternity leave: 12 weeks paid
  • Paternity leave: 4 weeks paid
  • Who gets the raises: Men and women (1:1)
  • Women who feel coworkers value their opinion: 87%

Medium

  • Women: 36%
  • Women on the tech team: 35%
  • Women executives: 20%
  • Women in leadership: 30%
  • Pay gap: N/A
  • Maternity leave: 4 months paid
  • Paternity leave: 4 weeks paid
  • Who gets the raises: 2:1 men
  • Women who feel coworkers value their opinion: 55%

Eventbrite

  • Women: 47%
  • Women on the tech team: 22%
  • Women executives: 33%
  • Women in leadership: 45%
  • Pay gap: N/A
  • Maternity leave: 12 weeks paid (30 days for adoption) 
  • Paternity leave: 4 weeks paid
  • Who gets the raises: Men and women (1:1)
  • Women who feel coworkers value their opinion: 76% 
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Written by:
Kira M. Newman is a Tech Cocktail writer interested in the harsh reality of entrepreneurship, work-life balance, and psychology. She is the founder of The Year of Happy and has been traveling around the world interviewing entrepreneurs in Asia, Europe, and North America since 2011. Follow her @kiramnewman or contact kira@tech.co.
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