Web Summit report: 42% of women in tech weigh stepping back

More than four in ten women working in technology have thought about cutting their hours, stepping back from leadership or leaving the industry in the past year, according to the 2026 Gender in Tech report from Web Summit, the organiser of one of the world's largest technology conferences. The findings, released in the last week of October 2026, are based on responses from more than 1,000 women across Web Summit's global community. Burnout or health concerns and the cost or availability of childcare were the two reasons respondents named most often.

The report describes a contradiction that many working women will recognise. Women are reaching more senior positions in technology, yet a large share say they are close to pulling back. The peak at ages 35 to 44 is telling: this is the decade when many people move into leadership roles and when many are also raising young children or caring for older relatives. When more than half of women in that age group have considered scaling back, the problem is less about individual choices and more about how work is organised around care.

The two leading reasons point in the same direction. Burnout, a state of physical and emotional exhaustion linked to long-term work stress, was named by 57% of respondents, and childcare by 54%. These are not complaints about the work itself but about whether the work can be sustained alongside the rest of life. For employers, that suggests the answers lie in workload, predictable hours, flexible arrangements and help with childcare, rather than in one-off wellness events.

Pay adds to the pressure. When 58% of women say they are paid less fairly than men, the decision to cut hours or step back can feel easier, because the financial cost of leaving seems lower and the sense of being valued is weaker. That makes fair pay a retention issue, not only a fairness issue.

The finding on artificial intelligence is also notable. Many companies present AI tools as a way to reduce routine work and widen opportunity. Yet fewer than a third of the women surveyed think AI has improved gender equality so far, and nearly one in five think it has made things worse.

For women in India's large technology and IT services workforce, the global findings are a useful reference point, even though the survey does not report a separate India figure. Questions about workload, flexibility and childcare support are worth raising at appraisal time or when weighing a job offer.

Short-term: The report gives employers and women's networks fresh numbers to use when arguing for workload limits, flexible hours and childcare support. Women weighing whether to step back may find it reassuring that their experience is widely shared.

Long-term: If the women who considered leaving actually do so, the industry risks losing experienced people just as they reach leadership age, narrowing the pool of future senior women and weakening efforts to close gender gaps at the top.

Who is affected: Women working in technology worldwide, especially those in their late thirties and early forties; women founders and managers; employers and human resources teams in tech companies; and families who depend on two working parents.

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