Philadelphia ranked as the 9th best city for women in tech in 2020

Philadelphia just ranked ninth in SmartAsset’s Best Cities for Women in Tech report, dropping six spots from third last year.

The study looks at U.S. Census Bureau data for cities with more than 200,000 residents. The ranking is affected by these factors: number of tech jobs filled by women-identifying workers, tech growth in the region, income and the gender pay gap and earnings after housing.

Here are Philadelphia’s numbers:

• Tech jobs filled by women — 29.3%
• Income after housing costs — $50,804
• Gender pay gap — Women make 91% of what men make
• Four-year tech employment growth — 22%

The main reason for Philadelphia’s fall in ranking comes from a widening gender pay gap, said AJ Smith, VP of financial education at SmartAsset. Philly’s female tech workforce is making about 91% of what their male counterparts are making this year, down from 97% in 2019.

And over the last few years, Smith said, there’s been a small but decreasing trend of the percentage of women in tech compared to men. In 2019, women made up 31.1% of the tech workforce here, and in 2018, 31.7%.

Philadelphia ranked just below Chandler, Arizona, and right above Durham, North Carolina on the list. But two other Mid-Atlantic cities, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., claimed the top and second spots in the ranking, respectively.

And other cities in that region such as Arlington, Virginia, ranked in the top 10. Some top government tech jobs are likely growing these cities’ place in the rankings, Smith said.

She added that although Philadelphia has gone down in the rankings this year, the city continues to rank above the national average of women in the tech workforce. There’s about 3% more women in tech here than nationally, the study shows.

But there’s clearly still work to do to become a more equitable workforce. How do these stats stack up to what you see in Philly’s tech community? We’d love to hear from you in the replys (and our DMs are open).

— Technical.ly (@Technical_ly) February 6, 2020

On a brighter note, Philadelphia ranks second among best cities for STEM diversity, according to a fall 2019 SmartAsset report.