More important than H-1B visas: KC’s tech boom is leaving women workers behind | Opinion

As Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C., battle over H-1B visas, and regions such as Kansas City compete for talent amid rapid manufacturing transformation, the focus on skilled foreign — mostly male — workers continues to obscure a more immediate, all-American, opportunity centered on retaining women in tech.

The numbers tell a story of wasted American potential and systemic failure. Women such as Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper pioneered computer programming, but women’s representation in information technology has declined from 34% in 1990 to just 24% today. For more than 40 years, women have outpaced men in earning college degrees, a gap that continues to grow. In science, technology, engineering and math, women earn 38% of bachelor’s degrees, yet 1 in 5 exit the field within their first year after college. By age 30, barely a third remain in STEM jobs. Seventy-six percent of women with engineering degrees do not work in engineering. Meanwhile, men scoring in the bottom 10% of STEM aptitude tests pursue technical career paths at the same rate as women in the top 20%.

This gender disparity extends beyond domestic hiring as the H-1B program itself reflects the same troubling imbalance. Women represent just 22% of engineering visa holders and 24% of computer visa holders.

Google data center needs talent

Kansas City exemplifies both the opportunity and the challenge. The region has bucked trends with a 7% increase in STEM-intensive advanced manufacturing (compared to a 7% decrease nationally) and attracted major tech investment, including Google’s new data center, and brought 1,500 new tech-intensive jobs in 2024 alone. However, the same systemic barriers threaten to undermine this growth. Without addressing the retention crisis of women in tech, Kansas City employers risk missing out on nearly half of the available talent pool needed to sustain this momentum.

Across the country, STEM jobs — projected to grow several times faster than all other job categories and traditional manufacturing industries — are rapidly transforming into tech enterprises. For example, automotive plants increasingly need as many software engineers as mechanical ones. All this means that the STEM talent race has become an all-hands-on-deck national priority. Companies urgently need talent in artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced electronics, yet these are precisely the fields where women’s representation already struggles.

Not only does the retention crisis of women in tech squander decades of educational progress, but it also contributes to the $1 trillion a year that companies absorb in voluntary turnover. We cannot meet America’s tech labor needs or stem these massive financial losses without addressing the persistent systemic barriers driving women out of tech.

Blocked from STEM leadership jobs

The reasons for this exodus paint a troubling picture of U.S. workplace culture. More than 80% of women in STEM report experiencing barriers that slow their career progression. More than 70% regularly face microaggressions questioning their competence and merit. The gender pay gap persists and won’t close anytime soon. But perhaps most telling is the disconnect between leadership perception and the reality of women’s lived experience, where human resources leaders are twice as likely as women themselves to say it’s “easy for women to thrive in tech.”

And for those women who do stay, advancement is far from equal. A large body of research shows the “broken rung” on women’s career ladders. For every 100 men in tech promoted to manager, only 52 women advance. Women never catch up. This first missed step has cascading effects on tech leadership pipelines and career trajectories.

Some argue that the shortage of women in tech is a woman problem — a lack of aptitude, interest and effort, or a lifestyle preference. While choice certainly matters, these choices are shaped by a complex web of experiences and expectations that create self-reinforcing cycles. Microaggressions and bias lead to reduced confidence and opportunities, which in turn affect career decisions and persistence. When 80% of women report career barriers, 70% face regular competence questioning. And most are paid less, their subsequent choices reflecting systemic pressures rather than free preference.

Dismantling diversity, equity, inclusion

When we choose to focus on women being the root cause of the lack of women in tech, we look through a distorted lens that absolves institutions of responsibility. Women’s representation in tech is already critically low, and we are pulling up the few ladders that help women climb into STEM careers. As organizations such as Women Who Code and Girls in Tech shutter, and tech companies dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the industry’s most critical talent shortage seems on track only to worsen.

Industry must act — not for the sake of diversity , but because the supply of American tech talent is thwarted by retention challenges that are solvable by companies themselves. Organizations should funnel the thousands they spend on each H-1B visa application into comprehensive early-career support for women, inclusive leadership training for managers and improving their cultures. They also should track retention metrics and turnover costs to quantify the business case for investing in women’s success.

Companies face a critical choice when it comes to women: They can either keep pushing out qualified talent, or create workplaces that genuinely value and develop every skilled professional. The solution to our tech labor shortage isn’t just about who we let in, but about who we’re letting leave.