Why S.F. Isn’t Actually The Best City For Women In Tech

In news that's surprising to no one, the gender balance in tech is still grossly skewed towards men. You may have also heard this: Women make up just 25% of the "computer occupations" workforce, and on average earn 86% of what their male counterparts make.  But, here's something new. SmartAsset pulled data from 2013's U.S. Census and compiled a list of best cities for women working in tech, taking into consideration the number of tech jobs per city, income, employment growth, and a female-to-male earnings ratio.  Guess what? San Francisco, which boasts the highest tech-jobs growth in the nation, didn't even break the Top 20. (Neither did Palo Alto.) In fact, it's Washington D.C. that takes top billing: 37.2% of tech D.C.-ers are women. The nation's capital is followed by Kansas City, Missouri, with 32.8%, then Fremont, California (the Bay Area's lone rep), with 27.8%. Out of the 54 cities included in the study, only two can boast women in tech being paid the same or more than men: Kansas City and Arlington, Texas.   If you're not mad, get mad. Despite the spotlight that's recently been trained on the longstanding hiring gap (white and Asian men come out way ahead of the game), as well as initiatives that companies like Facebook and Google are undertaking to address the gender imbalance, meritocracy is still in its beta-testing version. Let's do something about it.