International Women’s Day

Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho Excerpts

Thursday 6th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho (CB)]

My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, for her masterful introduction to this important debate, but I have to say that I am angry. I am not a person prone to rage and fury, but I am angry. I am angry because this is an urgent and important question that I fear we are ignoring at our peril.

I have now worked in or around the technology sector for over 30 years, and I have seen no change in the relationship between the sector and women or in the numbers of women. In fact, I have seen a degradation, not just in culture but in the absolute numbers. It is very clear—many people have already spoken of it, and I am sure we will have many more numbers today. Only 26% of the global tech workforce are women. In leadership roles, the figure falls again, to around 15%. In the UK, there are varying numbers on this, but the last figure I saw showed that just 6% of leadership roles in the tech sector are filled by women. This matters because, as we know, software is eating the world. We know that it is not an optional to digitise; it is happening. These are the jobs of the future—the jobs that create the services of the future and the jobs that will be paid the most amount of money. It is about power, justice and fairness.

I am dismayed when I see the numbers, and I keep going back to the disconnect between what I see happening and the benefits and the bonus of employing diversity in your teams and putting it at the heart of a company strategy. I just cannot understand this disconnect. That is why I am angry.

We know that 85% of consumers care that their products come from diverse teams. We know that employees care about diverse teams. I am president of the British Chambers of Commerce, and we have seen numbers showing that upwards of 80% of future employees care about what the future workforce looks like in the companies they are in. Yet we see the numbers stalling and, worse than that, if you believe, as I do, that the sector is going to be eaten again by AI, Quantum and deep tech, the numbers fall off even more considerably.

We are in a perilous position, and it is extremely disappointing to see the enormous influence of the US technology sector being integrated into the culture of our own companies here. I cannot believe that there is a single person who looks like me, who has worked on the edges of the digital sector for so long, who did not feel like crying as they watched the inauguration and the six men who have completely and totally committed to a President who at the same time has degraded the role of women so substantially. It matters—culture matters, character matters, value of companies and leaders matter—and yet I do not see this being played out in an industry that is also so full of innovation and the wonderful history that the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, so brilliantly described.

We have to take this issue seriously and make substantial change. I suggest two important areas to focus on. The first is around innovation and entrepreneurship. As the Minister has already said, and I am sure others will go into the numbers again as well but I am going to reinforce it, just 1.8% of venture capital funding goes to women. It is marginally better if you look at cofounding teams of men and women, such as I was in with my business, lastminute.com. That 1.8% is partly explained because just 9% of venture capital partners are women—if you have teams of people who do not look like us giving out money, of course it will look more risky to give it to people who might talk about products for the menopause, babies and periods. The assumption is, “Who knows if it’s going to be successful when I cannot imagine that product myself?”

So, the funnel is clear. We have to shift it across the board, putting the onus not just on the entrepreneurs but on the finance structures around them. There are changes and brilliant things happening, such as the work of Debbie Roscoe, who I am proud to call my friend and who is raising funds for Women Supporting Women. But those funds are small: they are about £200 million, when they need to be closer to £2 billion, or £20 billion if we are really going to shift the dial. We must not give up the focus on finance—it is fundamental—and, within that, on entrepreneurship.

Secondarily, we have to keep a focus on culture—it is more difficult, more existential. I had never used the words diversity, equality and inclusion, or DEI, in my life until the last two months, yet I find myself defending the very notion of equality to journalists, people I work with and companions in the sector and outside it. Again, I cannot understand the disconnect between what seems like good business practice—as the Harvard Business Review said in 2015, if you have mixed and diverse teams it will lead to a 20% increase in your profit line—and what we now face, which is a fundamental row-back in the belief and priorities of substantial programmes. Just yesterday, I heard of Google’s edict from on high, rowing back on a huge number of projects that it works with here in the UK, in charities and the civic sector, that look at diversity, equality, inclusion—AI for Good.

This is a very significant issue, so I end by imploring you to feel the peril and urgency of this moment. I want to celebrate the amazing women in this Chamber. I am looking forward to the maiden speeches. But I am angry and nervous, and we have to keep fighting.