Women in Tech: 2 Observations and Solutions
The Women’s March and more recently International Women’s Day generated a lot of great activities by organizations to support women around the world. All of it is very cool but I can’t help contrasting these happy events with the current mood of tech women in Silicon Valley.
With allegations by Susan Fowler about Uber, its hard to say we’ve made progress in the last few decades. In fact, I believe we’ve gone backwards. I personally feel like we let our mothers down. The women that fought for equal rights and got us to where we are today. What happened?
The numbers don’t lie. The number of women entering a STEM field is shrinking, not growing. I’ve struggled to figure out the underlying root cause, where did we go wrong? This happened right in front of me. I certainly never felt constrained or limited in my career in tech, but I think something changed over the last few years. When I graduated with a math degree and embarked on a software developer career path back in the 80’s, the sky seemed to be the limit. In the working world, no one said “no”, no one said I couldn’t. And I wasn’t alone. I was surrounded by a lot of women developers. But the women I talk to today in all functions, in all levels of a company, with a range of experience, talk to me about their situations. One woman in tech that I’ve known for over a dozen years recently said to me, “its worse now than ever before”. They are referring to the male dominated culture in tech. We have to solve this. We not only have to solve for today, but we need to encourage more young women (and men) to enter STEM to fuel the pipeline for the next generation. I have two observations and propose some solutions to solve for today’s problem and paving the way for the future.
It starts young. Our schools need to change their attitudes.
My daughters (and sons) were told in every grade that math is hard. Thankfully, I was there to help my kids and they also relied on Khan Academy. But our schools, private and public, can’t keep saying how hard math is. It isn’t any harder than any thing else, but just takes a lot of practice. Here’s a recent anecdote from a tech CEO who’s 13-year-old daughter is trying to decide on which private high school to attend in Silicon Valley. She sat down with a counselor who asked her what her favorite subject is and she replied, “Math.” The counselor looked surprised and said, “Really?” I’m not sure a boy of the same age would have gotten the same reaction. But the signal this young girl received was that it wasn’t “normal” to like math. My own daughter at Santa Clara University was told not to take Calculus because, “it’s hard”. She is now getting a minor in math because she wants to prove them wrong. The point is, let’s stop the bias against math and science in our schools and society. Let’s stop asserting it is hard. We need to encourage all of our kids to think about embarking upon a journey in STEM.
It starts at the top. The company is responsible.
I’ve had a great career, but I’ve had my share of negative situations too. Everything from being propositioned and disrespected to being bullied and belittled. I have stood my ground and proudly championed all women. I have no tolerance for negative situations and I will not allow these to fester in my organization. The allegations about Uber and HR’s handling of the situation are not unfamiliar to many of us. HR needs to really get involved in helping set the culture of a company, but they need the support of the CEO and executive team. A respectful and equitable culture starts with tone set from the top. In my opinion, the CEO is ultimately responsible. Let’s give the CEO some more guidance on this part of their role, or have HR really develop new founder CEOs and execs, so they can understand how bias starts to show up in an organization. The Watermark organization here in Silicon Valley does a great job educating and counseling exec teams on their responsibility to their organizations.
I wish there was an easy answer to solving the shrinking numbers of women in tech. But again, I think it is more complicated and systemic to our society. But if we start early, we can direct the younger generations to think the sky is the limit regardless of what field they are in. And when they do enter the workforce, let’s make sure they show up to a great and fair environment that treats them with respect.
