A Slate article published last week named New Orleans as one of the top ten cities for women working in technology.
The article was based on a survey by SmartAsset. Overall, the survey ranked New Orleans as number seven among cities that are best for women working in technology fields. New Orleans came out ahead of several cities more widely known for their tech communities, like those in Silicon Valley.
AJ Smith is the Managing Editor at SmartAsset. She said New Orleans was ranked higher than West Coast cities for a number of reasons.
“Silicon Valley did not come out on top, and I think that’s one of the things that’s surprising people," Smith said.
"Some of the reasons had to to with the percentages of tech jobs that were filled by women – that number in Silicon Valley is not very good. Also, the gender pay gap in Silicon Valley is still pretty high. Cities like New Orleans did well because the percentage of tech jobs filled by women is high.”
When only one metric is taken into account -- the number of women working in tech as a percentage of the whole -- New Orleans came in as the number two city after Washington DC.