Stereotyping in Silicon Valley Explains the Lack of Women at the Top
By Michelle Hendelman
A report released last year by the AAUW asked a very simple and direct question about women in STEM: Why So Few? A question this straightforward should have a clear answer, yet when it comes to women in technology the answers are numerous and complex, and tend to lead to even deeper questions such as:
What is preventing women from reaching the C-Suite in Silicon Valley? (6 percent represents the number of female CEOs at the top 100 technology companies)
How can we attract more women to technology careers? (5.7 percent represents the number of women in high tech occupations in the US)
Why do many women leave the technology field mid-career? (50 percent represents the number of women in STEM who leave the field in favor of a different profession within the first 12 years of their career)
Now, new light is being shed on the fact that women in technology continue to face gender bias, which could be the underlying factor contributing to the scarce representation of women in high technology.
New Research Indicates Stereotyping Still an Issue for Women in Tech
The culture of Silicon Valley is touted by insiders as a true meritocracy, where innovation trumps gender, race, or economic status. However, new research suggests that stereotypes –especially against women –are still creating barriers for women in technology. The paper, written by professors Ernesto Reuben of Columbia Business School, Paola Sapienza of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern and Luigi Zingales of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, presents the findings of a lab experiment in which managers assess, and ultimately hire, people who have been tasked with completing math problems.
Despite the fact that men and women historically performed equally well on the assigned math problems, the managers were twice as likely to hire a man over a woman when only one attribute of the applicants was made known: appearance.
Furthermore, the experiment revealed that managers were still more likely to choose a man over a woman even when they had more information about each applicant’s ability. Perhaps the most alarming revelation from the study came when two-thirds of managers selected male applicants even when they did not perform as well on the math problem as a woman.
The researchers determined that these managers were unable to see beyond their implicit bias based on the overarching stereotype that women are not as skilled at math as men, regardless of how well women performed in that isolated situation.
Do the results of this lab experiment explain the meritocracy myth plaguing the technology industry?
Overcoming the Stereotype Threat
According to AAUW’s research, “Negative stereotypes about girls’ and women’s abilities in mathematics and science persist despite girls’ and women’s considerable gains in participation and performance in these areas during the last few decades. Two stereotypes are prevalent: girls are not as good as boys in math, and scientific work is better suited to boys and men.”
The authors go on to assert that girls consciously avoid math and science subjects, despite possessing talent or interest these fields, because they do not want to risk being judged against these negative stereotypes.
Sarah Lahav, CEO of SysAid, a technology software company located in Israel, suggested that these stereotypes can certainly follow a woman through her career, but if they learn to block out the noise and focus on their work, the hurdles created by industry stereotyping can be overcome. “If you are good at technology and enthusiastic about your career potential, don’t let anything stand in your way,” she advised. “Don’t discount yourself because you are a woman,” Lahav added.
Lahav, an Israel native who said she experiences multiple layers of gender and cultural stereotyping when she attends tradeshows and conferences based in the United States, shared a very real example of how she and her husband – also a CEO – are approached differently. “Whenever I give interviews, the first question I am asked is how do I balance life and work,” said Lahav. “My husband never gets asked this.”
It is in these instances that Lahav encourages women to fire back and expose the stereotype. “Call it out,” she said. “By making people aware of the fact that they just used a stereotype, we can begin to change the mindset”
The importance of role models for women in technology who want to pursue leadership roles is one thing that Lahav emphasized as being a key factor in turning the tide of gender diversity in technology. “Senior level women in technology have the power to break the cycle of gender based stereotyping,” she asserted.
Nurture vs. Nature: Teaching Girls to Embrace IT
According to Lahav – who is a mother of two boys and a girl – a parent’s role in influencing a child’s imagination of what they want to be when they grow up is paramount. “My daughter is 14 months old, and I am the first to admit that when I envision her grown up and pursuing a career, high technology is not the first industry that comes to mind,” said Lahav.
“There is a place for women in IT,” said Lahav, “and we need to start encouraging young girls to imagine themselves in a successful technical career.” She continued by saying that we need to eliminate the question of work vs. family, especially when girls are in high school and trying to determine which field to pursue in college.
“Being a doctor is also extremely demanding on family life,” said Lahav, “but no one discourages women from pursuing a career in medicine.” She continued, “Young girls and women need to see all of the options in order to decide what path they want to pursue.”
Power in Numbers…Or is There?
There is a lot of emphasis being place on increasing the percentage of women in technical roles, but does amassing more women automatically mean we will see more women that rise to the ranks of leadership positions at large public technology companies? Not if these companies continue to hide behind the mask of “pattern recognition,” a well-constructed euphemism for stereotyping.
Changing the “brogrammer” culture of Silicon Valley will likely require more than an influx of women at all career levels. As Vivek Wadhwa stated in a recent article in The Washington Post, “Now technology is everywhere. It is being used by everyone. Grandma downloads apps and communicates with junior over Facebook. Women are dominating social media and African Americans are becoming Twitter’s fastest-growing demographic group.”
Is it time for Silicon Valley –and its workforce –to start reflecting the diversity of consumers supporting the industry?
