Susan Wojcicki, was one of the most prominent women in Silicon Valley, spent nearly two decades helping transform Google into a tech giant. She died August 9, 2024 (age 56 years). — © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File SCOTT OLSON
March marks International Women’s Month (including International Women’s Day on March 8th). The publicity around the event flags different streams of data. One area of interest is women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The focus is with the U.S. cities that offer the best chances for women looking to start a career in tech in 2025. A recent study by CoworkingCafe has explored this topic and the data has been shared with .
For this study CoworkingCafe analyzed over 200 metro areas across 10 metrics, from the share of female workers in the local tech workforce, their earnings, unemployment, health insurance coverage rates and more. To get a better perspective, analysts divided these metros into three population brackets — large, midsized and small.
Women are still relatively underrepresented in the tech sector, despite constantly gaining momentum in a wide range of work fields. However, there are some encouraging trends.
The U.S. map representing the metro areas that offer the best chances for women working in tech tilts slightly heavier towards the Midwest and Southeast. These regions have five metros each in the top five across the three population brackets, while the West has three metros in the top five, and the Northeast two.
The top ten cities are:
- San Jose, CA
- Washington, D.C
- Columbus, OH
- Charlotte, NC
- Raleigh, NC
- Denver, CO
- Richmond, VA
- Cincinnati, OH
- Seattle, WA
- Buffalo, NY
Among large metros, San Jose, CA, Washington, D.C. and Columbus, OH, take the podium in 2025 for women in tech. San Jose kept its throne from 2024, while D.C. leapt from the fourth position to the second in the span of a year. Columbus saw an even more impressive development, catching up from the 13th spot in 2024.
San Jose maintains its title as the top large metro for women in tech in 2025 mostly due to female tech professionals commanding the highest salaries in the nation with median annual earnings reaching $161,000. Additionally, women now make up 29 percent of the total tech workforce — an uptick from 26 percent in 2024.
Climbing two spots from last year, Washington, D.C. secures the second position on our list, solidifying its reputation as a capital for women in tech. Washington, D.C. benefits from a strong network of job opportunities with nearly 48 tech jobs per 1,000 workers.
Emerging as a rising tech hub in the Midwest, Columbus, OH, continues to gain traction as an attractive destination for women in tech. This surge has been driven by major investments from Amazon, Intel, and Google, which are transforming the metro into an emerging tech hub and fueling demand for highly skilled talent.
In the midsized category, Durham, NC, kept its number one position in 2025.Here Female tech earnings have seen significant growth to reach an average of $101,000 — up from $86,000 in 2024.
Durham is followed by Madison, WI, which ranked second in 2024 as well (although the percentage of female tech workers has declined slightly from 24 percent in 2024 to 21 percent this year, the metro is still a key player among midsized metros).
The newcomer to the podium is ProvoOrem, UT, which leapt in the span of a year from the 40th position to the third thanks to 140% surge in female tech salaries – this was mainly due to the major tech players like Oracle and Microsoft that opened their offices in the area.
Among small metros, we have a newcomer to the top position, Lexington Park, MD, followed by Champaign, IL, in the runnerup position, which jumped from the 37th spot in 2024. Charlottesville, VA, comes in third with a five position move in the span of a year.
The reason why Lexington Park claims the top spot among small metros for women in tech is driven by 41 percent female representation in the tech workforce and the highest number of tech job openings — 65 per 1,000 jobs. The small metro of Champaign sees women making up 28 percent of the tech workforce, this comes after a significant 113 percent increase in female worker numbers between 2019 and 2023.
