Women in tech move Raleigh-Cary area to 2nd in the U.S.: 'It's a really big deal'
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Raleigh-Cary has been ranked second best place in the country for women in tech, beating out Seattle and San Francisco.
CoWorking Café, a group that tracks coworking spaces, found that there's been an almost 50 percent change in the number of female tech workers in the area from 2018-2022.
"It's a really big deal to be among these tech hubs in terms of this ranking," said Carolina Women in Tech- Raleigh Chair Emily Maxie. "The act that we're in the South and you would think that the South might be a little further behind some of these cities."
Ally Brabant only moved to the Triangle 6 weeks ago. She's working for the start-up company Gemini Sports Analytics.
"It checks a lot of the boxes and what I look for in a city and like how I want to live my life," said Brabant. "Being in an environment with a lot of like intellectual stimulation, and a lot of people trying things and starting things is really exciting."
She says there's been real camaraderie among women in the thrilling tech scene.
"It's really cool to have that community and that it's growing and it seems very collaborative, which I like," said Brabant.
Women are also climbing up the ranks to C-suites.
Two weeks ago, MetLife named Michelleta Razon Head of Data Enablement and she'll be based out of global technology hub in Cary.
The nonprofit Carolina Women in Tech is now supporting outreach efforts in middle school to build up the pipeline.
"They want to learn more about and it really engages their curiosity at that age so that they will think about these types of careers in the future," said Maxie.
North Carolina's most recent State of Technology Report shows in 2022, the tech industry itself employed more than 300,000 people and workers earned about 40 billion in income.
The report finds the average person working in the tech industry earns $136,000 a year.
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