‘F1 fans are 40 per cent women, we need more female drivers and employees’

Chair & CEO of Kyriba and supervisory board member of at Porsche AG, Melissa Di Donato, dissects what it’s like to be a petrol head in an F1 world full of men, and how STEM and International Women’s Day are key to shifting the balance of power. The non-executive director at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology writes for City A.M.

The world has been glued to F1 this week, both on and off the track. But as the starting grid filled up in Bahrain last weekend, I for one couldn’t wait to see the racing start.

I’m a petrol head. I’ve loved cars since I was a girl, when my father invested in open-wheeled modified race cars. As soon as I was old enough, I learned to race them, at Skip Barber racing school in the United States. The first expensive thing I ever owned wasn’t jewellery or shoes – it was a go-kart.

And I love Formula 1. But when the pit teams left the starting grid, I couldn’t ignore the uncomfortable truth that no woman would make the podium in this, or any subsequent race this season. Because all 20 drivers, from Alex Albon to Zhou Guanyu, were men.

F1 and tech alike

Switch the F1 roster for the employee register in your average tech company, and you’ll see the same dynamics at play. I’ve led teams at Salesforce, SAP and Oracle. I’ve led the management teams of software companies SUSE and Kyriba, as CEO. And through all those teams and all those years, I’ve remained a minority. The anomaly on the starting grid.

Tech companies have been talking about getting to gender parity for decades now. Not only has proper progress not been made, but some perceptions have shifted into reverse gear.

According to new research from Nigel Frank International, four in five men in tech believe women are treated equally in the industry. They don’t see a problem. It’s a reminder that if you’ve never experienced the invisible structures that prevent equality, you don’t know they’re there.

But the numbers are clear. Women occupy only 22 per cent of tech roles globally. And 56 per cent of women have truncated careers of 20 years or less in tech. It’s starker still when you follow the money: only 3.5 per cent of UK equity investment went to female founded businesses in the first half of 2023.

There are initiatives galore in tech businesses. Inclusion programmes, reverse mentoring programmes, inclusivity training. And there’s evidence of movement: 25.3 per cent of leadership roles in tech companies are now occupied by women, which is a big 19.5 per cent increase on 2019. But we know the funnel of women into tech businesses has to be stronger.

STEM pledge

It must start in schools, with girls taking STEM subjects in greater numbers. The UK’s losing £1.5bn a year to a shortage of STEM skills – no surprise when a group that makes up half the population consistently chooses STEM subjects in fractional numbers, compared to boys.

If I were writing an election manifesto this year, I would be thinking carefully about policy levers that will increase the currently feeble supply of STEM teachers, up STEM-related training in professional life and support girls who choose STEM subjects to make it into the workforce.

Back on the track, they’re working on solutions too. I was pleased to read that British Indy NXT racing driver Jamie Chadwick is going full-throttle to revolutionise female participation in grassroots motorsport – Karting. The ‘Jamie Chadwick Series’ of races for women will address the low level (13 per cent) of women in karting. They’re starting by inviting girls to try karting for free on International Women’s Day – it could not chime better with International Women’s Day 2024 campaign theme: Inspire Inclusion.

Chadwick’s message is clear: Motorsport is rewarding, it’s exciting, regardless of gender. So is tech.

Barriers

Barriers in F1 are being broken down. The Iron Dames are an inspiring, all-women driving team founded five years ago. Branded by many as a bit of a novelty act with their Pink Porsche and matching overalls, sceptics whispered behind their hands the team was not chequered flag material. Those same sceptics have had to eat their words – and a fair amount of Porsche dust – as they’ve made history and set records. All music to my ears, in my proud capacity as a Porsche AG board member.

And because 40 per cent of the global F1 fan base are women, motorsport knows it must place more women in racing cockpits. The new ‘F1 Academy’ is helping young female drivers reach the sport’s highest echelons and has rightly attracted sponsors like beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury.

Extreme E, an electric rally series, mandates its teams employ one female driver, and F1 Broadcasters recognise having women at the heart of presenter line-ups can only encourage girls and women get behind the wheel of a racing car and keep female eyeballs like mine glued to their channel.

Change isn’t easy. Change takes time. But in both the pitlane and the boardroom, I see the same need to pick up the pace and work harder to make those worlds fairer. If we celebrate those inspiring inclusion on this International Women’s Day, we’ll get to where we need to be faster than we think – perhaps even at F1 speed.

Melissa Di Donato is Chair and CEO of Kyriba.