Women in Tech Week 2025 is being promoted as the UK’s largest nationwide celebration of women in technology. Timed to coincide with Ada Lovelace Day, it promises a week of online and in-person events such as fireside chats, panel discussions and networking opportunities. The aim is to highlight women’s achievements and inspire future generations. Partner organisations such as WeAreTechWomen continue to highlight innovation and career development, supported by reports like The Lovelace Report. Yet across the wider industry, many sponsoring companies still face persistent challenges around pay equity and representation.
Yet celebration alone cannot dismantle the barriers that persist beneath the surface. One in five women still leave the tech industry mid-career, and the gender pay gap remains a stubborn fixture across most sponsoring companies. Reports like The Lovelace Report continue to call for allyship, structural change and clear pathways into senior roles. Without those, high-profile events risk becoming polished performances rather than catalysts for real progress.
The Corporate Gloss and the Everyday Reality
From 13–17 October 2025, Women in Tech Week will unfold across the UK with a long list of sponsors and speakers. The programme promises inspiration, networking and thought leadership. On paper, it looks like a milestone moment for diversity in technology.
Behind the branding, however, the reality is more complicated. Many sponsoring companies still report significant gender pay gaps and very few women in senior leadership. Internally, they continue to struggle with retention. Women are leaving the industry at twice the rate of men. Sponsorship often becomes an easy public relations opportunity, a way to signal commitment without tackling the structural issues that make advancement so difficult.
If Women in Tech Week 2025 is to create lasting impact, it needs to move beyond keynote panels and social media hashtags. True change will come when participating organisations are held accountable for closing pay gaps, improving retention and building inclusive cultures that support women long after the event ends.
Visibility without action is not progress. It is theatre.
Belonging or Integration: The Hidden Friction
Belonging means being valued for who you are. Integration means changing yourself to fit into a system that was not designed for you. Too often, Women in Tech Week celebrates the latter while claiming to represent the former.
Across the industry, women are still told to “lean in,” “speak up” or “be more confident” as if personal attitude alone determines success. This mindset shifts the focus away from workplace culture and onto individual behaviour, leaving the underlying structures untouched.
The data tells a clear story:
- Women leave tech at twice the rate of men, not due to lack of ambition but because of daily friction in environments that fail to value them.
- Women who speak up are often labelled aggressive, while those who stay quiet are seen as lacking leadership potential.
- Around 80% of UK tech firms report a gender pay gap, and many of those companies appear as event sponsors.
- Women make up roughly 27% of the tech workforce, yet hold fewer than 10% of executive and C-suite positions.
This creates a cycle where women are celebrated once a year but remain excluded from decision-making the rest of the time. The pressure to fit in to established team dynamics, networking cultures and unspoken rules designed by men becomes exhausting. Belonging, in that context, feels like performance rather than authenticity.
If Women in Tech Week 2025 wants to champion true inclusion, it must acknowledge this friction and hold companies accountable for fixing it. Belonging should never depend on women adapting to broken systems. It should mean that systems finally adapt to include women.
The Cost of Performative Inclusion
When companies use Women in Tech Week as proof of progress, they risk reinforcing the very inequities they claim to address. Corporate sponsorships and panel appearances can create an illusion of inclusion that hides a lack of structural change.
The cost of this performative approach is high. By using visibility as a substitute for reform, organisations avoid the harder work of redesigning pay structures, promotion pathways and leadership culture. As a result, women continue to face the same obstacles year after year while companies point to glossy event photos as evidence of success.
In the UK, more than three-quarters of technology companies still report a median pay gap in favour of men, and in some the difference exceeds 20%. Many of these same firms have sponsored diversity events for years, yet their data shows little progress. Representation also drops off sharply as careers advance. Fewer than one in ten tech leadership roles are held by women, and representation is even lower for women of colour and disabled women. A week of networking events does not fix these long-term patterns.
The human cost is often overlooked. Women inside these organisations see their employers praised publicly for inclusion while their own experience remains unchanged. This disconnect breeds disillusionment and mistrust. Women are not leaving tech because they lack drive. They are leaving because they are exhausted from operating in cultures that fail to support them.
Real progress requires transparency in pay reporting, fair promotion processes and accountable leadership. Until that happens, Women in Tech Week will remain more performance than progress.
Reimagining Women in Tech Week for Real Impact
What if Women in Tech Week 2025 became more than a showcase? What if it turned into an annual checkpoint for accountability and measurable change across the tech sector?
Here are practical ways that could happen:
- Link sponsorship to accountability - Event sponsors should publish their gender pay gap data, retention rates and promotion figures alongside their branding. Visibility would then reflect transparency, not marketing.
- Track promotions, not just attendance - Representation in leadership remains the biggest gap. Sponsors should commit to sharing data on promotions and career progression, not just event participation.
- Make allyship continuous - Tie sponsorship to ongoing mentorship or sponsorship programmes that last beyond the event week. Networking matters, but sustained advocacy changes outcomes.
- Prioritise intersectionality - Women of colour, disabled women, mothers and older professionals face compounded barriers. Women in Tech Week should require sponsors to show how they address intersectional inequalities inside their organisations.
- Publish an annual impact report - Each year, organisers could release an impact report detailing pay gap progress, leadership diversity and retention improvements. This would turn visibility into measurable progress.
By embedding accountability and data into its framework, Women in Tech Week could evolve from a stage show into a driver of genuine change.
Beyond the Hashtags: Where Real Change Happens
Visibility has value, but lasting change comes from everyday workplace practice. Panels and hashtags can raise awareness, yet without consistent follow-through, momentum fades once the week is over.
Real inclusion means:
- Transparent recruitment and promotion processes
- Leaders measured on team diversity and retention
- Mentorship that grows into sponsorship, where senior allies actively open doors for women
- Recognition that intersectionality matters, because not all women face the same barriers
Change also grows through strong communities. Networks like Girl Geek Network provide practical tools, mentoring and advocacy beyond corporate events. These spaces help women share experiences, build confidence and drive systemic change together.
For companies, the message is simple: if you want the benefits of a diverse workforce, one-off events are not enough. Invest in long-term inclusion strategies that create genuine belonging.
From Showcase to Systemic Change
Women in Tech Week is important. It celebrates achievement, raises visibility and creates connections. But if it stops there, we risk applauding progress that does not yet exist.
The real measure of success will not be the number of logos on stage, but the number of organisations that can demonstrate closed pay gaps, improved promotion pathways and workplaces where women can build long careers.
For organisers and sponsors, the challenge is to make Women in Tech Week 2025 a launchpad for accountability. Publish data openly. Commit to year-round programmes. Invest in actions that remove barriers rather than disguise them.
For women in technology, the opportunity is to connect with communities that offer more than inspiration. Spaces like Girl Geek Network provide the tools, networks and confidence to navigate the system while working to change it.
If Women in Tech Week 2025 can move from performance to practice, it could become the turning point the industry needs. Visibility should be the spark, not the finish line. This could be the year we finally make it count.
Girl Geek Network is a global community helping women in technology build sustainable careers and drive structural change through data, mentorship, and allyship.