WOMEN IN TECH: How to rise to the top and still be a mom
Technology used to be considered a male-denominated world for geeks, but that is no longer the case as technology impacts the lives of everybody. However, the number of female CEOs of global technology companies can still be counted on one hand (namely IBM, HP and Yahoo).
Women studying engineering and science degrees are still a minority and there are still cultural expectations of women in terms of motherhood and how that can comprise their career ambitions. Then there is the global phenomenon of unequal salaries, an issue still present in the technology industry.
Job recruiting start-up Hired has estimated that women can earn anywhere from 3% to 30% less than men in Silicon Valley. Some companies, such as Facebook and Microsoft, have said they offer equal pay for their employees regardless of gender. But they are still very much a minority.
BNamericas spoke to Jackie Yeaney, executive VP of corporate marketing and strategy at open source software giant Red Hat about her experience of rising to the top as a woman in this male-dominated world and the challenges and changes that are taking place.
BNamericas: Why do you think more women are entering technology than in the past?
Yeaney: I'm not actually sure there are more women entering technology fields today. When I received my electrical engineering degree in 1990, I thought I was at the front of a wave of women in tech, but my day-to-day environment and the actual numbers show that hasn't really happened.
BNamericas: Do you think it's important to change the education system in a way that encourages girls from an early age to consider and become passionate about careers in IT? How difficult is it to change that?
Yeaney: Yes, it's critical to start encouragement at an early age, but I don't think it's just our education system alone - it's in the way we talk, support and interact with our young girls. It starts at home with parents. I credit my interest and confidence to enter engineering to my Dad.
It wasn't until I found myself amongst mostly males at college that I realized I was 'out of place'. But I decided to stick with it. Too often girls are steered away, probably unintentionally, from STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.
It's not a matter of Lego versus dolls. I had both. It's pushing against norms of behavior that have existed for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
We need to change the way society thinks, speaks and encourages (or discourages) girls to help them see the possibilities in math and science. They need role models they can see and touch.
Corporations shoulder responsibility to serve as mentors, to provide STEM scholarships
BNamericas: What can women bring to a role in the technology industry? Do they have different ways of looking at things to men that can be complementary?
Yeaney: I believe that the greater diversity we bring into STEM fields, the better our answers to critical problems will be. The problems of today (e.g. environment, food/water supplies, governments, power, healthcare, divides between upper and lower classes) are more complicated than any one type of person or way of thinking can solve. We need 'Open Leadership' which, perhaps, women exhibit more than men. These people are inclusive, transparent, thoughtful, humble, adaptive, and communicative. The time of top down, hierarchical, directive leadership is evaporating.
BNamericas: Should there be more start-up or developer competitions specifically for women?
Yeaney: Yes, every action helps move the needle. Focus on making it fun for them. But, they need role models so they know what it might feel like to work and succeed in IT. We also need to ensure that we emphasize that it's their different approach that adds true value. They shouldn't feel like they have to conform to a set of established norms.
BNamericas: One challenge for women in business in general is the inequality of salaries. Is that being addressed and what other inequalities do you see?
Yeaney: The good news is that there's quite a bit of awareness around this issue and companies like Facebook, Google, and Salesforce.com are taking actions and changing the dialogue (in the US) at least. Other regions are doing a better job, but the problem still exists around the globe and is probably not being addressed fast enough for young women entering the workforce today. If you start lower, it becomes harder to catch up and the gap gets larger over time.
In terms of other potential disadvantages, there are aspects like maternity policies, childcare, flexible work environments, and working hours. This affects entire families – not just women. Equal paternity and maternity leave is something the Nordic countries have figured out and the data is starting to show what that means for childhood development.
It's time to change the game to focus on work-life integration since I don't think we'll ever be able to go back to a notion of work-life balance.
BNamericas: Is it more difficult for women than men to succeed, not only in tech but in business in general because of the traditional expectations of their role as a mother?
Yeaney: This impacts both men and women and we will see this have an increasing impact on fathers. Today, many companies use motherhood as an excuse for why they don't have more women at the top, but I don't think it limits anyone's success at all.
To be successful as a businesswoman and mother requires more creativity and efficiency, but doesn't limit success.
The best advice in this area to women is to remember that careers today are long and nonlinear, so we don't have to follow the traditional rules, climbing the ladder. We should think about how we can ebb and flow in our career and focus on the tradeoffs we are and aren't willing to make along the way. For women to be more successful, we need to be better at drawing our boundaries and knowing when it's time to plow forward and when it's time to take the foot off the gas and believing it's ok to do so. If we miss out on a promotion because we have three kids under the age of 6, that's absolutely ok - we're needed elsewhere and our time will come again when our household is a little more self-sufficient.
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