While it’s no secret that women are still underrepresented in the technology sector, the share of women interested in tech careers is continuously growing. Lithuania is no exception – from a truly gender-balanced STEM workforce to plenty of reskilling opportunities, the country is a great place for women in tech.

Women in ICT

Lithuania’s vibrant tech sector is home to dozens of ICT, Fintech, and GameDev companies, as well as 700+ active startups. Many of these companies are continuously on the lookout for new hires, which means plenty of exciting career opportunities. And as English is the lingua franca of the industry here, international talent feel right at home.

For women in ICT, working in Lithuania means joining the company of many female colleagues already in the field. In fact, 23.7% of Lithuania’s ICT professionals are women, a percentage considerably higher than the EU average and in the bloc’s top 5, according to Eurostat. The share of women in ICT in Lithuania is also projected to grow to 27% by 2025.

The number of female startup founders is growing, too. Lithuania has some very successful examples of women tech entrepreneurship – take Vinted, Europe’s largest fashion marketplace and Lithuania’s first unicorn, which has Milda Mitkutė among its co-founders. Other promising startups also have women in their leadership teams: interpretation platform Interactio was co-founded by Simona Andrijauskaitė, 3D model marketplace CGTrader – by Dalia Lašaitė, NFT platform Lympo – by Ada Jonušė. But you don’t have to be a founder to lead a tech company – Sigutė Kuncevičiūtė, the CEO of SumUp Lithuania, and Monika Laukaitė, Country Manager for Wix.com in Lithuania, are just two examples of that.

Then there’s also the booming Global Business Services industry, which boasts a diverse and inclusive workforce. Women account for nearly 50% of the sector’s overall headcount, with equal representation extending into higher positions as well – almost 50% of the senior management roles are held by female executives, according to Invest Lithuania.

Women Go Tech

If you’re thinking about entering a technology-related field, Lithuania can be just the place to make a career change. There are plenty of initiatives that help women start and accelerate their careers in ICT and engineering.

Among the most popular and successful programmes is Women Go Tech. Established in 2017, it’s the first mentorship programme in Lithuania aimed at empowering women to discover the tech sector. One Women Go Tech session lasts six months, during which the participants are paired with tech business executives and experts (both men and women) that help them navigate the many career opportunities in ICT and engineering.
(Read what Andrea, who relocated to Lithuania from Denmark, had to say about being a mentor at Women Go Tech.)

Alongside regular in-person meetings between mentees and mentors, Women Go Tech also features monthly community gatherings, networking sessions, hands-on workshops, and field visits to technology companies. With career counselling sessions a strong focus of the programme, 52% of former Women Go Tech mentees have found a job in tech during the programme while as much as 70% find employment within a year.

Women in science

Lithuania is also making strides in closing the gender gap in science. A hotspot for Life Sciences, the country has multiple prominent women at the vanguard of this field. For instance, neuroscientist Dr. Urtė Neniškytė and nanochemist Dr. Ieva Plikusienė, researchers at Vilnius University, have both recently received the Rising Talent award, given to most promising young researchers in the world by L’Oréal Foundation and UNESCO.

Women make up more than 58% of all scientists in Lithuania, according to Eurostat, and the country leads the OECD by the share of women in science, technology, and innovation. Women are better represented than men amongst doctoral graduates, too – 57.9% of Lithuania’s doctoral graduates are women, the highest percentage in the EU.

Kickstart your international career today

Whether you’re a woman with significant experience in tech or just looking to enter the field, Lithuania has you covered. Want to know more about working culture in Lithuania? Here’s our blog post on it.