Movers and Shakers: Beth Devin, Chief Technology Officer, Manilla

BethDevinBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Beth Devin is conscious of the challenges that women face in Silicon Valley. As Chief Technology Officer of Manilla, she works for men and with a majority of men, and said that there are times when she has wished for more gender diversity. But she also believes that technology is a terrific field to work in – and by discussing the industry’s challenges and benefits, the good and the bad, senior women can provide encouragement for younger women coming up the ranks.

“Successful women in technology leadership roles are few and far between – we should not underestimate the positive impact we can have on women considering a technology career or just starting out,” she said.

“Speak up as women in technology, talk about the amazing opportunities and what the challenges are. Your wisdom and experience are valuable. The more information that’s out there, the more storytelling you can do, the more it will benefit others.”

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Voice of Experience: Meredith Prange, CAO, Citi Technology Infrastructure, Citi

MeredithPrangeBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Make sure that you jump at an opportunity to move outside your comfort zone or area of expertise,” said Meredith Prange, Chief Administrative Officer for Citi’s Technology Infrastructure Group at Citigroup.

Prange, who has risen through the ranks to leadership as an IT engineer, explained how seeking out and accepting new challenges is the way to develop critical leadership skills.

“If you look at very successful men and women, you will see that their experience includes roles that are aligned to the business lines as well as technology leadership roles, in addition movement to different companies is also not uncommon,” she explained.

“Look for those opportunities that will challenge you and broaden your experience.”

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Voice of Experience: Joyce St. Clair, Executive Vice President, Operations and Technology, Northern Trust Corporation

JoyceStClairBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I think you have to take risks,” said Joyce St. Clair, Executive Vice President, Operations and Technology, Northern Trust Corporation. “Be willing to stretch yourself. We get comfortable in the job that we do. We have to be willing to embrace change and take calculated risks – it doesn’t mean being reckless.”

“You’ll have stumbles, but you need to take stretch opportunities – otherwise you’ll never show your worth.”

One big risk she took – a two and a half year long assignment in London – really paid off, St. Clair said. “It was the hardest thing I did – moving my children mid-year and putting my career ahead of my husband’s at that time. We are supportive of each other, looking at opportunities as they arise.”

“Finding a flat, and even finding a doctor was challenging. But I think it brings you together as a family,” she recalled. “It was a great experience. Especially when my oldest daughter said she wanted to know how I had arranged it, and that she hoped to provide that experience for her kids someday.”

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Celebrating Female Role Models in Technology

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Last week, Bloomberg hosted the NCWIT Aspirations Award ceremony – a special event to honor young women in high school who have excelled in the area of computing. Keynote speaker Jacqui Meyer, R&D Chief of Staff at Bloomberg, explained how she found her way into the technology field as she was finishing college. Intending to go into sports marketing after graduating, she interviewed with the company just to keep her options open. During the interview, she was asked about her experience writing software – and she didn’t have any. But, she said, she could learn whatever they wanted to teach her.

That was in 1993 – and 19 years later, she’s still with the Bloomberg. “Why?” she asked. “I love the challenge.”

She explained that the challenge of writing software to solve financial problems has become a passion for her. But it wasn’t something she even considered while in school. “I don’t think anyone was trying to hold me back because I was female,” she recalled. “I just didn’t know it was available to me.”

Meyer urged the award winners to keep drawing young women into the industry. “You all respect, understand, and value the way technology could be used to unlock doors,” she said. “You also have a responsibility to be an ambassador for women in technology, paving the way for those who will follow you.”

Similarly, Ruthe Farmer, Director of Strategic Initiatives for NCWIT, encouraged the winners to understand how valuable they are for the future workforce, pointing out that the US will only have 29% of the workers it will need for technology jobs by 2018. “A company like Bloomberg wouldn’t put out all of this time and energy if you weren’t really important to them, and you are really important to a lot of companies,” she said.

She added, “Let people know what you’re available to do and what you’re capable of.”

In that light, this week The Glass Hammer is highlighting high ranking women who have achieved success in the technology field. They reveal the wide-ranging possibilities for a career in the industry, and, hopefully, serve as a role model for women climbing the career ladder, as well as their peers.

Check back all week long to read profiles of women in IT careers, describing how they got to where they are today and their advice for the next generation of women in technology.

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Ms. Foundation Event Reveals Movement in Transition

gloria_anikaBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“How can we explain that the women’s movement is part of everything?” Gloria Steinem asked Monday night at the Ms. Foundation’s annual Gloria Awards dinner. “I, for one, am tired of reporters asking if I’m interested in anything else.”

While Steinem was referring to the fact that women are an integral part of the world – every field, every debate, every discipline, every community – her comments also served as a powerful reminder that the work of feminism isn’t done. Until reporters, and people in general, understand that women’s continued inequality affects every single part of the world, and all of us, we still have a ways to go.

For someone like me, who was born in the ’80s, it is hard to imagine the rapid shift that has taken place over the past 50 years. The “Mad Men” days seem more like fiction than reality, or at least like historical circumstances to gawk at in more enlightened times. But the stories women shared on stage during the event illuminated the very real circumstances in which the movement was born, and the profound changes that have taken place the real world since.

Judging by the dismaying events that have occurred on the political stage in the past few months, we can not forget that the mission of 20th century feminists hasn’t been accomplished yet. What will 21st century feminists do to achieve it?

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Challenging Discrimination against Moms

iStock_000015894701XSmallBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

“Moms earn up to 14 percent less than women who don’t have children, says a University of New Mexico study.” “Getting pregnant can mean losing your job.” “The devaluation of mothers is at a crisis point in our nation.” These are all excerpts from recent articles about working mothers and while it’s clear why sentences like these are troubling, one fact really brings it home: in 2010, women represented 46.7 percent of the United States labor force and 80 percent of women in our nation have children by the time they’re 44 years-old, which means a majority of women in the U.S. experience mom discrimination at some point in their lives.

Conversations regarding working mothers should be productive and the goal should be to provide new insights, which is why it seems important to shed light on a newly emerging aspect of the mommy wars that appears to be on the rise: senior women with grown children who have little to no patience for younger mothers trying to come up the ranks while raising their young children. According to Tobi Kosake, the reasoning seems to be, “If I didn’t have it easy, why should you?”

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Voice of Experience, Christa D’Alimonte, Partner and Deputy Practice Group Leader, Mergers & Acquisitions, Shearman & Sterling

ChristaD'AlimonteBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Ask Christa D’Alimonte, a leading mergers & acquisitions partner at global law firm Shearman & Sterling, and she’ll tell you that one of the key things she’s learned throughout her career is the importance of being flexible.

“In this kind of profession, we tend to be extraordinarily good planners and extraordinarily well organized,” she says. “But you can’t always plan everything. Both your personal and professional life will throw curve balls at you.”

And the proof, according to D’Alimonte: “I never thought I would be an M&A lawyer.”

That’s quite surprising, considering that D’Alimonte, who is currently advising Synthes on its $21 billion acquisition by Johnson & Johnson – one of the biggest M&A deals in the last couple of years – is considered a top-tier dealmaker. D’Alimonte also works with Viacom and other leading companies, as well as all the major financial institutions.

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Leadership Bias Revealed Again

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iStock_000010363335XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to new research, IPO firms with male CEOs get the advantage with investors, compared to those with female CEOs. This news probably comes as no surprise, but the nuances revealed by the study point to a conclusion that should be concerning to anyone who works in a field characterized by the term “meritocracy.”

When it comes to matters of gender, there’s no such thing as fair play. For women at least, outcomes are rarely based purely on performance. More and more research is showing that gender weighs heavily on the equation when it comes to your job, your promotion, your paycheck, and – in the case of this new study – how much investors are willing to pour into a business.

A working paper recently released by researchers from the University of Utah and Washington University in St. Louis suggests that female led IPO firms do worse than male ones. The study says, “Despite identical personal qualifications and firm financials, female Founder/CEOs were perceived as less capable than their male counterparts, and IPOs led by female Founder/CEOs were considered less attractive investments.”

Moreover, the researchers say, even though prospective investors were presented with identical information on performance, experience, and qualifications, “Female CEOs were seen as less experienced, less able to lead, less able to resolve TMT disputes and board deadlocks, as well as a less favorable representative of the company in the eyes of the public.”

Women continue to be perceived as less capable leaders than men, simply because they are women.

While many companies purport to be meritocratic in the way they reward top producers, studies like these show that we’ve got to wonder what kinds of gender biases play into sponsorship and promotion within companies, as well as investments into IPO firms.

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Looking for a New Job? Find a Wingman

HurryContributed by The Runaway MBA

I have a wingman – not at the bar, but in my job search.

At first it started casually. We would compare with whom we were meeting, when we met, and what we learned. We were both at similar stages in our job search, but going after positions at different levels. Because we both had different networks, we were able to tap into different connections, alumni pools, and job databases.

My wingman comes from a relationship established during a MBA semester exchange. We connected initially because of our field and then became friends over time, first through classwork and next through our job search. We held common interests that allowed a friendship to develop. First it was joining each other for industry conferences and discussing the current state of the market. Next it was the discussion of how certain meetings were either more or less successful and why. Then, once we knew each other, there came the occasional recommendation of person or firm to connect with.

Over time we had developed trust because we were not a threat to our individual job search, but found a way to complement one another and to support our egos. As either of us became aware of roles not suited for our own needs but the other’s, we shared leads and potential recommendations into the company.

This new friendship has also helped me identify some of my own personal weaknesses in the job search – and how to overcome them.

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Work AND Life: A Winning Combination for A Successful Career

ChristineBrownQuinnContributed by Christine Brown Quinn, author of Step Aside Super Woman

With all the talk about work-life conflict, you would have thought that having a personal life detracts from your professional life. My experience, especially over a 20 year career in the corporate world of international finance, has been exactly the opposite.

Thanks to the family and staying active in sports (running, health club, cycling and tennis), I was saved from burn-out. Having interests outside of work is what keeps you grounded and gives you perspective, as well as patience. Have you ever noticed that it’s when you’ve completely worn yourself out at work that you’re prone to “blowing a fuse”? It’s the personal life that gives you the motivation, encouragement, and the balance you need to excel in business.

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