Martha Lane Fox: 'He said, "We're done with women"'

Martha Lane Fox is still struck by sexism in the tech industry, after more than three decades working in the space.

A recent example took place during a tech event in the US, she revealed to Business Leader during an interview at the Tech Show London event, where diversity was on the agenda to mark International Women's Day.

She recalled the painful episode from last year.

She turned to a man and said, "I'm so depressed that it's 2025 and I'm one of only two women sitting in the room."

"He replied," says Lane Fox, "without any sense of humour, 'haven't you heard, we're done with women'."

Lane Fox is one of the UK's best-known entrepreneurs. She shot to fame in the late 1990s dot com era, with her co-founder Brent Hoberman, as they scaled lastminute.com.

It was an early e-commerce platform that sold experiences online, using pioneering techniques like dynamic pricing. It went public in 2000 at a valuation of more than £500m.

Since then she's played a prominent role in public life, becoming the country's Digital Champion under prime minister David Cameron, and today is ambassador of the British Chambers of Commerce.

Lane Fox argues there is an economic as well as a moral imperative to take gender diversity seriously.

There are many examples of money being wasted due to product launches that failed for not taking female feedback into account. A recent example is Apple Health, which had to be relaunched for failing to take account of menopause.

There is a lack of women working for male tech bosses like Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman, she points out.