By Aimee Hansen
We are increasingly conveying a new message to our daughters and nieces when it comes to girls’ and women’s place in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics): You belong.
“Ada Twist, Scientist” by Andrea Beaty held the top spot on the NYT best sellers among children’s picture books for four weeks as of October 16th (still in the top 10), joining Beaty’s “Rosie Revere, Engineer,” on the list for 76 weeks now.
In August, “Ada’s Ideas: The Story of the Ada Lovelace, the World’s First Computer Programmer” by Fiona Robinson was released. More of the books we give to our children to read are saying, STEM “is for girls” – and not only that, but they are exploring themes like passion, perseverance, and the value of failure.
Ada matters, and so does recognizing all the forgotten or overshadowed women in STEM, because it’s not that women are just entering these fields now, thank you very much. It’s that girls and women are being desperately courted back into them.
A Broken STEM Narrative
In an episode entitled, “When Women Stopped Coding,” NPR noted that women were a pioneering, rising presence in computer science until a stark turning point in 1984: when computers came into homes and the cultural narrative began glorifying them as toys for the boys.
From that year, the rising cultural narrative pushed girls out at home while talented women dropped out of tech in schools. In 1984, women represented 37% of computer science majors and despite the rising demand, today it’s 18%.
This was not the first time capable women were written out of the STEM story, just a recent one. The tired narrative that women don’t belong in STEM replays through the industry stereotypes and cultural dynamics that keep women away, throw an extra hurdle in their path, or drive them out.
Every time a new study (2016) shows that “woman” is still perceived by both men (even more so) and women to be incompatible with “successful scientist” (or programmer, or engineer, or executive, or leader), it’s proof that a limited narrative is still being internalized by our culture.
This “STEM is for men” narrative is dangerous, because it’s also written women right out of a rising proportion of high-reward, high-in-demand jobs. Bad for women, yes. And crippling for the U.S. economy.
Talent Shortage and Competitive Lag
A new report from Accenture entitled “Cracking the Gender Code: Get 3x More Women In Computing” calls the current lack of women a “national crisis with severe implications for America’s place in the global economy and for the future of women.”
Consider that women take home half of computing degrees in Malaysia and nearly half of engineering degrees in Indonesia. In the USA, women receive just 18% of computer science undergraduate degrees and 19% of engineering degrees.
The Accenture report states that job growth within the computer industry is growing at three times the national average, creating unmet demand. In 2015, there were over half a million open computing jobs in the U.S., but only 40,000 computer science graduates.
By 2018, it’s estimated that 2.4 million STEM jobs will be unfilled. The report points out that the shortfall of analysts in the U.S. is greater than the surplus of analysts in India and China combined. Increasingly these jobs are newly emerging jobs that haven’t existed before, requiring new specialized skills.
The glaring reality is that STEM needs women if the U.S. economy hopes to retain any leadership in digital innovation.
Women Sidelined Within Economy
An AAUW report states that engineering and computing represent 80% of the jobs in STEM, offering the highest return on investment and best job prospects.
Studies have shown that STEM jobs pay women better relatively to other jobs.
But women are least represented in engineering (13% of jobs) and computer science (26%), and the Accenture analysis showed that the gender pay gap within U.S. computing roles widened by 48% between 2011 and 2015, as women are missing out on the high-value roles.
Bringing women back into computer science isn’t just about progress in STEM. It’s about “bringing women back to the center of our economy.”
Encouraging Girls and Young Women In Tech
The Accenture report recommends a three-stage strategy to “more than triple the number of women working in computing in the U.S. to 3.9 million by 2025”, or 39% of the workforce. This would generate nearly $300 billion in additional cumulative earnings for women.
“The keys to improvement include: sparking the interest of girls in junior high school, sustaining their commitment in high school where early gains are often lost,” states the report, “and inspiring college undergraduates by reframing computer curriculums.”
Equal exposure is not enough, but actually re-tailoring educational programs towards girls, young women, and women – at all levels. Interventions at the college level would only result in 1.9 million in computing in 2025 (1.2 million now).
The first-ever technology and engineering literacy test in 2014 found that eighth grade girls (45%) were more proficient at engineering and technology related tasks than boys (42%).
A few years later, those same young women are less likely to take the related AP exams (only 20% of computer science exam takers) and less likely in their first college year to intend to major in these fields.
Accenture states that 69% of the potential growth in the computer pipeline is down to attracting girls at junior high age, as 74% of women in computing now were exposed in junior high.
This demands exposing girls to coding in more attractive ways (eg gaming), changing stereotypes, and increasing awareness of all parties (teachers, parents) about how computing can help change the world for the better.
Multiple initiatives here and globally are dedicated to recruiting girls and women into STEM- such as Million Women Mentors, the WISE campaign which seeks to bring one million women into STEM in the UK, and Girls Who Code.
At the high school level is when interest in computer science drops. The report recommends redesigning high school courses, creating grassroots campaigns around the difference STEM can make, and attracting more women teachers.
Supporting Women In Tech
At the college level, we’ve witnessed that strong, focused efforts can result in dramatic changes.
In 2016, Dartmouth graduated more female (54%) than male engineers, a first for a national research university. The program features more collaboration, a supportive network with diverse role models, and a “hands-on, project-based” approach, which exposes students to engineering who may not have chosen it.
In 2016, Harvey Mudd graduated a majority of women in computer science (54%) and physics (52%) for the first time ever, having already graduated a majority in engineering two years ago. Importantly, 64% of the 2016 computer science graduates who had accepted a full-time job had a position in the tech industry, compared to 30% in 2011. Only ten years ago, women were only 10% of computer science majors.
Under President Maria Klawe since 2006, Harvey Mudd has famously made three key changes that removed obstacles for women, such as reworking introductory courses to attract women and integrating research opportunities, and it only took a few years to quadruple CS majors and less than a decade to arrive to the landmark classes of 2014 and 2016.
At Harvey Mudd in 2017, six of the school’s seven department chairs and 38% of its professors will be women.
Biasing Recruitment towards Women
It’s not surprising that a slew of diversity apps designed to help to mitigate bias in hiring and promotion have been rising out of Silicon Valley, in many cases led by women who have faced bias in action in the tech industry.
These ideas help reduce the biases that keep women and minorities out of tech roles. But after such acute exclusion with such growing demand, it will take more than eliminating bias against women to address the massive talent gaps. It will take educational strategies that lean in towards girls and women.
Representation, visibility, and mentorship of women in these fields remains paramount. It starts to rewrite the broken cultural narrative and reminds both girls and women that we do belong – from our children’s books to our leadership.
Being visible is arguably the most influential thing an engineer, scientist, programmer, mathematician, and executive in any of these fields can do to encourage change.
Because it’s not just that girls and women belong. It’s that they are needed.
Op-Ed: What I’ve Learned as a Woman in Technology
Op-Ed, Women in TechnologyAs a woman and leader in technology over the past 30+ years, I have seen a lot. I have witnessed and experienced the tremendous progress we have made. Yet we still have a long way to go to reach an equitable playing field in attracting and retaining more women in technology. Not to mention, leading!
It is undeniable that women leadership has had a successful impact in the world of business. Currently in the US there are just over 9.4 million women-owned businesses generating revenues of $1.5 trillion — up 79% in nearly a 20 year period. According to Dow Jones Venture Source, analysis of more than 20,000 venture-backed companies showed that successful startups have twice as many women in senior positions as unsuccessful companies. Tech companies led by women delivered higher revenues using 30-50% less capital. They were also more likely to survive the transition from startup to established business.
Yet, the overall percentage of women in technology is woefully low. In 2015, women made up 25 percent of computing-related occupations. The retention rate is even more troubling. In the high tech industry, the quit rate is more than twice as high for women (56 percent) than it is for men.
The sad and hard truth is that Women in STEM also were more likely to leave in the first few years of their career than women in non-STEM professions.
I was fortunate that early in my career I got involved with technology. I worked for Exxon Corporation in NYC in various staff positions and then made the jump to sales — selling Exxon’s line of office technology on Wall Street. I immersed myself in the technology, early as it was, and found that I had a natural affinity to it.
More than any other role, Sales prepared me for 31 years as an entrepreneur in so many ways —-it taught me to be courageos and fierce every single day!
These qualities serve me well in my current role as the Chief Executive Officer of TCGi. It is my responsibility to craft the vision and strategy for the firm. I also am chiefly responsible for cultivating and managing excellent client and partner relationships.
Life as a CEO keeps me on the go 24/7, but it is the giving back that completes the circle. Sharing the experience of my journey, lessons learned, successes and failures with women who are entering the field will help them tremendously.
Being a successful woman leader in technology inspires me to want to see more women of color participate and succeed in this field as well. My work with NCWIT (National Center for Women & IT) supports this desire. I am an active Board Member as well as the National Spokesperson for the ‘Sit With Me’ Campaign.
Early education is key to attracting more girls, women and people of color to Tech. Another is mentorship and advocacy. Senior Leaders must actively advocate for and sponsor diverse candidates for leadership positions within corporations. With too few women in tech positions and tech leadership roles, it is impossible for girls and women to aspire to positions or cultures where they see no one who looks like her.
Women have made great strides in the workplace today, and we shouldn’t downplay this progress (0 CEOs of Fortune 500 in 1996 and 20 years later there are 21). But we need to accelerate progress—and I believe progress in increasing women in leadership goes hand-in-hand with increasing women in technology.
Conclusion
Technology is still a very male-dominated industry. What that means is the technology being invented by largely homogeneous groups (White and Asian males) isn’t as deep and rich as it could be. Once women and people from all cultures, ethnicities and backgrounds begin to fully participate in the invention of technology, we will solve societal problems in a mighty way and ultimately change the world!
Avis Yates Rivers is the President and CEO of Technology Concepts Group International, LLC, (TCGi), an asset, expense and procurement management firm. Ms. Yates Rivers has worked tirelessly to increase the development and utilization of minority and women-owned businesses in both the public and private sectors. She has held leadership positions in various supplier diversity advocacy organizations. Ms. Yates Rivers is also a staunch advocate for increasing girls’ and women’s participation in Information Technology. She is on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Women and Information Technology and serves as the spokeswoman for the organization’s Sit With Me campaign.
You can learn more about the lack of women in technology and Avis Yates Rivers by purchasing her book ‘Necessary Inclusion: Embracing the Changing Faces of Technology’ which will be in bookstores and online in early December.
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Voice of Experience: Michele Trogni, Executive Vice President, Consolidated Markets and Solutions, IHS Markit
Voices of Experience, Women in TechnologyWith a longstanding career working for and selling to financial institutions, Michele Trogni, Executive Vice President of Consolidated Markets and Solutions at IHS Markit, shares her best piece of advice – success isn’t achieved by one person alone. It’s all about everyone involved, whether it’s your team, your customers or your community.
In her current role, Trogni leads the delivery of data-driven solutions for customers in product design, technology, and managed services including digital, tax solutions, counterparty manager, Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Third Party (KY3P).
She is responsible for helping customers achieve their business goals and competitive advantage through focused, scalable solutions which reduce cost of ownership, improve decision making, lower risk and engage end clients.
Banking and Tech Combine for Ideal Career
As the first in her family to attend university, Trogni has always been a trailblazer. Her career in banking was built during the 25 years she spent at UBS. She first started as a financial controller, often working on integrations and merger-related projects. It was a very acquisitive time, and she was often required to close transactions in a tight timeframe. “It was a perfect fit for me as a tech-savvy accountant with a rambunctious personality,” she says.
As she took on more and more projects, her career took her from the UK to Chicago. She became more involved with the technology function, which spurred her enthusiasm as she saw the potential of combining tech into future strategy.
After a brief stint in Chicago, Trogni upped roots again and headed to New York in 1997. “My CIO at UBS was impressed with the directing I’d done on a wide variety of merger projects, but he told me that if I want to be given the opportunity to do something big, I have to really know the ins and outs of how it all works.”
Trogni was advised to move into technology to be at the coalface running the IT function, and that’s exactly what she did. “Learning how to run the division was an important milestone that propelled my career. I couldn’t have accomplished what I have, if I had stayed on a superficial level,” she says.
She was asked to become group CIO in 2009, overseeing a $5 billion budget and more than 17,000 employees – an impressive achievement considering there were still so few women in tech. After five years she decided to retire from banking, but her best-laid plans for a year off were undone when she was offered the opportunity to move from building tech to selling it through Markit after just six months into her retirement.
It is a perfect fit: selling products she understands to customers like banks and hedge funds that she knows well. “They know I have sat in the buyer’s seat which is compelling to them,” she says.
Now Trogni is responsible for a much larger role within her firm. In July 2016, Markit merged with IHS to create IHS Markit, a global powerhouse and leader in critical information analytics and solutions that drive economies worldwide. She is excited to bridge two firms from both the cultural and operating perspective, creating a new vision for the combined firm.
Making Sense of Diversity
While Trogni has the intellectual skills to succeed, she also has a high “EQ,” an emotional quotient that has served her well and, she believes, enabled her to navigate successfully as a woman in a world that is heavily male dominated. “Some colleagues ended up obsessing about that, but I never did,” she says.
Prior to the financial crisis, firms were working hard to embrace diversity, but Trogni believes that their emphasis on diversity shifted to crisis management. “We’re gradually getting back to where we were,” she says, but notes that there is still a lot of unconscious bias in the workplace that the next generation will have to deal with – something she feels positive about given the fact that millennials are a less-judgmental generation. “I’m very optimistic that they are the perfect ones to address and overcome it,” she says.
It’s the Team That Leads to Success
Over the years, she has had many peer sponsors and managers, and she believes in paying it forward, focusing on ongoing coaching. “No one’s career can be just about them,” she says.
Trogni feels professionals get the best results when they have multiple sponsors, rather than relying 100% on one person to offer the next opportunity, which can lead to burn out. These various sponsors have modeled qualities she wants to emulate, and she also takes inspiration from West Coast entrepreneurs – people who “break the mold,” like Sheryl Sandberg and Elon Musk.
She also has seen the importance of surrounding yourself with a team that offers different specialties. “I don’t need all Type A people, or sales guys or marketing pros,” she says. “You need a combination of a wide variety of skill sets because you only win when you cover all your bases.”
Of course, a sense of humor, and ability to laugh at yourself never hurts, she adds.
A Robust Life outside Work
Community service has long been an important component of Trogni’s life. She has been active with the UBS-sponsored Bridge Academy, a half industry and half governmental-supported school focused on math and music in a low-income part of London. Through fundraising activities she helped spearhead, the school was able to raise £1.5 million, allowing it to expand to offer classrooms for Sixth Form, the equivalent of US 11th and 12th grades. She also worked with the school to create female empowerment groups that introduced girls to coding and tech.
In addition, she spent four years on the board of NPower, a tech charity that trains young, underprivileged adults in the skills they need to build websites and then matches them with clients.
Mom to four kids, ages 18, 15 and 13-year-old twins, Trogni stays busy with their sports and enjoying the “loud family fun” that kids bring – fitting in CrossFit workouts when she can. The family likes to travel and relishes time spent at their home in Nantucket.
Closing thoughts
When asked to point to career achievements that she is most proud of, Trogni turns to her role leading Investment Banking Operations at UBS during the financial crisis. It was a time of high emotions in the industry as well as tremendous risk, she recalls. “Turning to sponsors, mentors and my team helped to ease this burden and proved to be a time when my EQ really came to the fore. The last thing a leader wants is to get to the top of the hill with no one behind you.”
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Finding Your Own Answers to Navigate 2017
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!I publish theglasshammer to help you excel at work. In 2017 theglasshammer will turn ten. We provide career advice and you can see how other women have climbed to the top, you can catch up on the research and academic studies in a digestible way to know the trends of what is happening for professional women at work, for diversity and inclusion patterns and to consider leadership strategies. However, career advice is just that; advice on how you can do things. Useful for some and not a fit for others and it is important to know what works for you -both personally and in context of where you are working and living.
Coaching on the other hand is about you finding answers to your own questions. We became coaches here, legitimately studied and got qualified as we saw that you can lean in, we saw that systemic work takes time and we now know that there is no method more effective than changing one person to change the world.
One more inclusive male leader changes lives, just as one more woman advancing is a piece of puzzle and if we can help you then you can help others. Criteria mass theory – does it work? We do not know as we are not there yet. I guess what we saw in this election is that by virtue of being a woman, that does not by default make you not sexist. I have discussed this at length in other posts and tune in on Friday December 16, 2016 for a fuller exploration.
Sometimes we just do not know what is going on until we have a coach to help us explore it safely. It is useful to understand the context, to explore the content of the challenge and to then find out a way to safely explore options before taking an action that will help in solving an issue or perhaps it will provide a step in achieving a longer term plan. Your plan, your agenda.
That is why, a coach can play such a unique role in your career trajectory. A mentor gives advice, a sponsor advocates for you but a coach can help you look at what you really want and help you get it.
I have three questions for you to ponder as we wrap up the year:
What do you want in 2017? How can you get it? What does success look like for you in 2017?
These are some questions to think about. Are they your questions? What are your questions? Marilee Adams wrote a clever book which I recommend you ask Santa or your gift bearer of choice to give you this holiday season called “Change your questions, change your life“. Often we just are not asking ourselves the right questions and are busy judging ourselves and others. In your life, in your career and managing your team, are you telling yourself and others the way it is more than questioning what you and others need and want?
We do not know what new macro-level obstacles will appear due to the changes in government in the US and with Brexit in the UK, but we do know that we can examine how we feel, think about what we want, assess risk and talk actions accordingly- at work and in life. You might find it gives you peace of mind in these volatile times.
Theglasshammer is offering a post-election special on coaching- 2 sessions for $399 to be used before Jan 20th.
Nicki Gilmour is a qualified individual/organizational psychologist and founder of glasshammer2.wpengine.com
To Pioneer or Not to Pioneer? Being the First Female President of the USA
Career Advice, NewsIt has been quite difficult to avoid the US election season this year, even if you do not live in the United States. I have avoided writing about it for many reasons including general fatigue with the whole topic and not wanting to further burden people who want to see some other topic discussed in the media. But, today is election day so how can we avoid it? Today is the day to talk about how it matters and how it should not matter that the potential next President of the USA is female.
Like her or loathe her, Hillary Clinton is doing it. She is determined, smart and driven. You should admire her ambition and her sheer stamina in trying to fulfil it. Equally, we should all understand our immediate blind spot that we have as we would never think about a man’s ambition level. We expect them to be ambitious whether they are or not, just as we expect them to be leader-like in their natural born traits whether they are or not. I have written about this many times and Virginia Schein has pioneered this research for 40 years in her “Think Manager, Think Male” work since the early 1970s.
Many countries including countries that do not have clean drinking water have had female premiers, so again no matter what your politics are or personal sentiments are towards Hillary; she is pioneering and going where no woman has gone before in the USA.
Why does it matter that she is a woman? And why does it matter that you are a woman at work?
Sexism is real. I want to thank Trump for helping us see the real and ugly effects of talk and actions that for too long have been described as innocuous. If he wins today, then we know the road ahead for what it is. The issue is on the table at last, a discussion that can be addressed, as it is most dangerous when subverted and it had lurked under the table pretending that we had already sorted it out when we clearly had not.
If Hillary wins today, then we know that she as one person has a lot of work as President and we should be careful that we do not project all our fears and hopes onto her. One woman in charge does not gender parity make and it will be fascinating to see what happens as research has shown that often a woman in charge is not necessarily great for the talent pipeline.
Asking her to run the free world and change gender inequity without help is a disaster waiting to happen. So, many will relish her being judged about the topic just as so many are questioning why Obama did not fix racism. Sometimes it is easier to not be the identity in question. Asking him to fix racism and asking Hillary to fix sexism is in fact racist and sexist and impossible without everyone doing behavior change yet this is pretty much what we ask diversity managers to do every single day at work.
We have written about assimilation and we have talked about the Queen Bee syndrome. Clinton has been given narrow behavioral parameters during the campaign battles from which she can operate, as all women are. The most encouraging element of this game show competition to be President, is that we can see that women are not going to put up with the sexist nonsense anymore and those who do are exposed for the role they play in what was previously covert collusion with the patriarchical status quo. Equally good men, truly good guys are also going to bat for women in their actions. Discussions can be had and progress can be made, as soon as we get out of the messy middle!
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Voice of Experience: Miruna Stratan, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs
Voices of Experience, Women in TechnologyAs a technologist, there is no better time to enter the financial services sector, asserts Miruna Stratan, Goldman Sachs Managing Director in the Technology Division. “Technology is no longer a cost center, but is at the core of digital transformations across the industry, providing the opportunity to impact and shape new business models.”
Driving Technology Advances Throughout Goldman Sachs
Miruna joined Goldman Sachs after studying communication and electronics engineering at Bucharest Politechnica University and earning her graduate degree in telecommunications from Stevens Institute of Technology. Building technical teams and developing new innovative infrastructures have been the hallmark of her career throughout her time at the firm.
During her 17-year tenure at the firm, she has held multiple roles. Early on in her career she built technology solutions for the banking business. Subsequently, Miruna took a series of technology infrastructure engineering roles, focusing on data center engineering products across the computer storage and networking space and working closely to drive the firm’s global data center architecture and strategy.
Over the years, she had the opportunity to work directly on building innovative technology stacks that transformed Goldman’s operational model and enabled the firm to be increasingly agile. Miruna was also part of the team that engineered the virtual desktop platform for the firm, and more recently she drove a security engineering project that enabled Goldman Sachs to extend its cloud platform securely to public cloud providers. Currently, she manages the external cloud access platform, cloud desktop and remote access function for Goldman Sachs engineering. She was named Managing Director in 2015.
Being named “Technology Fellow” in 2014 was a notable achievement for Miruna. The role of Technology Fellow is a distinction reserved for the best engineering and architectural talent at Goldman Sachs, a select group of engineers whose authoritative knowledge is demonstrated through strong technical leadership, innovation and problem-solving expertise.
“At Goldman we manage complex technology stacks and control frameworks; we think of ourselves as a technology firm building the platforms that allow our colleagues to transform our businesses into a data-driven model through applied technology,” Miruna says. “It is exhilarating to be at the forefront of emerging technologies in the infrastructure organization when the rate of technology change has been so tremendous.”
Lessons Learned – and Now Shared
Over the years, Miruna’s career has progressed in large part because of the opportunities she took to move laterally throughout the firm. “I had to prove myself each time in these new roles, on different types of technologies, but these opportunities were the most amazing learning experiences I had,” she notes. “I am quite proud of the engineering teams I have built over the years as well as seeing many of my mentees grow and develop.”
One important lesson she has learned is the significance of communicating your contributions to others. Early in her career, she focused on building her technical skills while avoiding the spotlight. She recommends that women develop their technical skills and establish themselves as an expert in a specific technology or platform early on, but once they get there continue to accept lateral opportunities and embrace the challenge to work on something completely different. Miruna also realized it’s essential to listen to feedback and be thoughtful about how to align others to your vision.
“You have to modulate your message to the audience and understand how to be practical when delivering a product,” she said. “Communicating your strategy effectively to stakeholders ensures buy-in for a new project or platform.”
Ensure Women Have a Seat at the Table
Initially, Miruna felt intimidated as the only woman in most situations, but over time, she found diverse role models within the firm and across the tech industry. Connecting with these individuals helped her realize that being different allows others to naturally notice your contributions more.
“It’s so important to have strong female and diverse role models in executive and senior technical roles,” Miruna says. “We have to carefully mentor the technical talent not only as they enter the firm, but throughout their career.”
Due to her own experience in the sector, Miruna is passionate about building a thriving female tech community and has participated in industry conferences such as the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, ABI.NY events and Lesbians Who Tech.
She also focuses on giving back to the Women in Technology organization and devotes significant time to recruiting and retention programs, partnering with external organizations such as Girls Who Code and the Anita Borg Institute. Additionally, she has been involved in the Geek Speak program, which provides individual coaching and feedback to help women improve their presentation skills when discussing technical topics.
Throughout her career, Miruna has been involved with Goldman Sachs’ affinity networks, serving as the Managing Director sponsor for the technical pillar of Women in Technology. She has also participated in the Disability Interest Forum and is an ally to the firm’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.
Supporting Children With Disabilities
Separately, she actively works at balancing her family and career while simultaneously addressing complex special needs situations. “I have learned how important it is to prioritize, delegate and recognize the activities that are the best use of my time,” she says.
Miruna is passionate about helping kids with disabilities by ensuring kids with dyslexia have access to specialized education accommodations and programs. As October 15 is both World Sight Day and World Dyslexia Day, in October she reflects on her future impact and contributions to this important issue and creates a specific action plan for the upcoming year.
“There is now so much technology available that can be leveraged to help kids with disabilities participate fully and successfully at their grade level in the learning process,” she says. “I regularly research innovation that creates accessible, technology-based solutions in the areas of communication and advocate for such solutions in the special needs community and within my school district.”
An avid reader of both science books and literature, Miruna enjoys traveling with her husband and their 12-year-old twins. Recent trips have included Spain and Romania, and this year they traveled to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons and learned about the amazing geology of Yellowstone County.
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Voice of Experience: Marilyn McDonald; Director of Product Management Technical, Global Digital & Cloud Technology, Citi
Voices of Experience, Women in Technology“Do not wait to be asked to the table. If you have value to add, then invite yourself,” says Citi’s Marilyn McDonald, a motto she has followed throughout her career at numerous “tables.” Along the way, she has also lived the advice she now offers others: “Be authentic. You don’t need to be exactly like someone else, be they male or female, to succeed because the parts that make you authentic are the parts that will help you be successful.”
Building Her Career In Many Disparate Industries
“Non-traditional” is the word that McDonald uses to describe her career. She put herself through college while working full time – community college first and then Arizona State University. At 22 she drove to Northern California in order to learn to snowboard and work at a ski resort, spending the subsequent five years “following the snow” from California to Australia and New Zealand. Then she backpacked around Europe until she ran out of money. “These experiences really helped broaden my view of how culture and people influence behavior,” McDonald says.
As she contemplated career options, she took a correspondence course in computer programming until “I realized I was terrible at it because I couldn’t sit still long enough,” she laughs. Around that time she moved to New Zealand with her husband and young son, where she worked in enterprise software implementation, putting software into manufacturing businesses and writing reports for the business.
Soon after, she transitioned to working for an advertising agency which she says began her love affair with building great customer experiences. “I worked on some fabulous accounts and even made some pitches for big corporations. These experiences were some of my most foundational, especially the experience I gained building cross-media campaigns to reach consumers across more than one channel,” she says.
When McDonald returned to the U.S., she worked in marketing and advertising with what she calls “some of the best and brightest minds.” Around this stage she was offered a role at a very large online retailer as a product manager. “I believe marketing is about understanding your customers’ behaviors, and product development is about using that understanding to build the right products – so almost two sides of the same coin,” she notes, citing this as an extremely rewarding and challenging part of her career working with teams that launched a number of firsts for the company.
Subsequently, she gravitated to the financial services industry, where she met her first mentor. “He saw potential in me and gave me greater and greater levels of responsibility – running not just the marketing arm, but events, the web development team, PR and finally all of the customer experience touch points,” she says.
Next McDonald received an opportunity to help create a technology culture inside a bank, the biggest and most rewarding challenge of her career. “Citi has been around for over 200 years, and has focused on technology for many decades. Citi understands it must evolve in order to compete,” she says.
Since change needed to happen at many levels – people, technology and culture — it was exactly the type of monumental challenge that she loves, working with a team she admires.
“My proudest moments have always been around building healthy cultures where people can thrive and develop. I am happiest when someone is able to advance in their career due to an environment or an opportunity we created together,” she says.
Currently there are many trends that will change the face of the industry, particularly as fintech firms are starting to get their banking licenses, which is a big game changer for traditional banks. Now, she says, it is about providing the best possible experience for the customer, including a focus on safety and security, all of which will drive innovation in the financial services space.
Supporting Diversity Efforts
McDonald finds barriers for women in financial services to be similar to many other industries; however, she finds things are improving on a daily basis across the board. “It is heartening to see the increasing number of women in all levels, but particularly in more senior positions where they can be role models and provide opportunities for others,” she notes.
She is active in Citi Women, a corporate-wide diversity effort designed to unlock the combined potential of women and Citi by inspiring progress, leading change and driving success. The program aims to attract, develop, advance and retain female talent at all levels within the company.
In addition, for the first time, she and Citi colleagues attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing as an organization this year, and included a number of women from Citi’s technology groups to learn, network and share.
One of the founding members of a corporate women’s group, McDonald says she has been “lucky enough to be in some pretty brilliant circles.” She even helped found an Oval (Only Very Awesome Ladies) organization that is still in existence today in Seattle.
Interests as Varied as Her Career
McDonald loves to read, garden, bake and remodel houses. “My son is now 20 so he is taking less of my mental bandwidth these days, but instead, our lives now revolve around our enormous and very hairy dog and two cats.” New to the New Jersey area and just getting settled, she is looking forward to finding more ways to give back to my community.
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Mover and Shaker: Ciara Quinlan, Head of Electronic Principal Trading FX, Rates & Credit, UBS
Movers and Shakers, Women in TechnologyFew would call banking a “flexible” career, but UBS’ Ciara Quinlan has found the secret to success in balancing work with family life.
“When it comes to being a great mum and achieving my career goals in parallel, I’m a believer in having it all,” she says. “I took off the time I wanted when I had my son four years ago, and initially came back part time while managing to roll out a major project and advance my career at the same time.”
She notes that one of the reasons she hasn’t felt she had to sacrifice is that she has always been
brave in asking for what she wanted and flexible herself in making it work. Even though flexible working wasn’t commonplace in trading roles at the time, she asked for a chance and worked hard to make it a success, noting that she would have burned out long ago otherwise. “Sometimes we have to create the environment we need,” she says.
From Engineering to Banking
After earning a Ph.D. in electronic engineering, Quinlan decided to join the banking industry after learning that the industry was eager for people with her qualifications. She was offered a position at Dresdner Bank as a junior quant trader in foreign exchange, applying the same type of algorithmic and statistical approaches she’d learned in engineering.
“I was looking forward to working in a fast-paced industry and instantly took to working on a trading floor with many diverse characters and cultures. I loved the pace, intensity and unpredictability of the market.”
Shortly after she arrived, the majority of her team was redeployed, and she ended up embarking on a project to rebuild the electronic trading systems with her boss. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me as I had to learn very quickly how to manage projects and figure things out for myself,” she says. One of her first project deliveries was the EFX pricing system, and shortly after it went live, Lehman went under. “I was very quickly thrown into the deep end, and our new system was really put to the test,” she recalls. “Thankfully it handled the unforeseen market uncertainty and volatility very well.”
Several moves followed: she joined Barclays to work as a mid-level quant trader and later became co-head of the quant trading team; then she was approached by an old friend and colleague who wanted her to head up electronic FX quant trading at State Street so she went there and was able to hire a new team of top talent to build the company’s electronic FX trading systems. Then, three years ago, her former Barclays’ boss approached her to run electronic trading for FX at UBS. That role expanded a year ago to running electronic trading for FX, rates and credit.
“All the moves I’ve made have given me an interesting outlook on the culture of different banks. I know what I value from a firm and now find myself in a very happy place at UBS,” she says.
Right now that includes a large team expansion and undertaking the massive project of rebuilding electronic pricing and hedging for the eFX principal business, as well as building from scratch UBS’ electronic interest rate swap business.
“Those are the moments I look back on with the most pride — the growth periods when you’re building new things and everyone’s involved and excited to be consumed with the work. Then after the tough slog, you have the reward of seeing the new business flow in and realizing your success.”
The Many Benefits of a Career in Banking
Quinlan’s experience in banking has been overwhelmingly positive, a sharp contrast from general media portrayals she had seen prior to joining that show the business as being full of ruthless people, a rat race where you sell your soul and burn out quickly.
“It’s been nothing like that,” she says. “I love banking and have found there to be such diversity in the different roles and potential career paths. It’s actually an extremely open environment where people are very interested in your views regardless of your level of seniority,” she says, adding that even as a new starter having never studied finance and economics her views were listened to and valued.
A Family Role Model and Sponsorship Helped Show Her the Way
Quinlan readily admits that her role model has always been her father, a senior manager at IBM. “He really inspired me and I still think about how he would handle certain situations when I’m faced with them,” she says.
She most admires that he tackled every job with the same high level of positivity and hard work, even long after he had retired. “It didn’t matter whether the job at hand was boring or he would get any personal benefit,” Quinlan remembers. “He tackled everything with enthusiasm and gave each job, no matter how small, his full effort.” She also admires that he was always incredibly positive and treated everyone with respect regardless of their position. “He was successful because people wanted to work hard for him,” she notes. “I always try to apply myself with the same level of enthusiasm.”
That outlook has been important as she has progressed from building models to managing teams, where it’s vital to have open communication and ensure their motivation and buy in.
“You can have the best strategy in the world but when you’re running a business, you have to motivate the workforce who are actually producing the work and get them to buy into your plans,” she notes.
Quinlan says her career has been shaped by informal sponsorship especially with bosses who exposed her to cross-business relationships. “I didn’t know it at the time but it was massively important in how my career has progressed,” she says. “Early in my career I focused solely on delivering my projects and didn’t give much thought to networking or career next steps. My bosses encouraged me to push myself forward and gave me the exposure needed across the firm.”
And now, she repays the favor when she mentors people who are new to the industry, reminding juniors who are focused on applying themselves to the immediate tasks at hand that they have to ask for more and put themselves forward. “If exposure across the firm doesn’t land in your lap, you need to take responsibility and make it happen.”
She shares her insight with a female networking group that she started at UBS, modeled after a similar one at State Street. One or two senior women meet with a small group of more junior associates to discuss different topics — anything that’s challenging them. “It’s the perfect environment to raise issues they are having and always involves interesting debate,” she says.
In addition, she has been involved with a UBS front-office-led maternity support group that pairs a “business buddy” with an expecting mom to communicate changes and help them stay in touch while they’re out. She’s been participating as a buddy and now is about to use it, as she is pregnant with her second child.
In the little spare time she has, Quinlan says she loves travel, music and watching her little boy grow up. “I feel fortunate I get to take such an active part in his life and am proud he’s growing up learning that gender plays no role in potential career success.”
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Voice of Experience: Amity Millhiser, Chief Client Officer, PwC US
Voices of Experience, Women in TechnologyWhen Amity Millhiser considers her career with PwC, the word that comes to mind is “expansive.” Over her 20 years with the firm, she has worked across countries, industry sectors and lines of business.
“I am proud that I have been able to have such a multi-faceted career while raising my amazing daughter,” she says. “If you’re courageous enough to pursue the opportunities that are thrown your way and think ambitiously about your future, you can have amazing experiences. I’ve spent my entire career in one firm yet had multiple careers within that framework.”
From Wineries to Tech – A Career Spanning Multiple, Varied Industries
Millhiser joined PwC in San Francisco right out of college working with small businesses which at the time were primarily wineries. She knew she wanted to go abroad so she agreed to a three-year assignment with PwC Switzerland, ultimately staying for 19 years. While there she became the first female partner as well as starting the M&A business for the region. “It was a fantastic opportunity to travel the world and work with amazing clients and a wonderful team,” she says. “Switzerland is as global and multinational as it gets.”
Upon her return to PwC’s US firm she became a managing partner and chief client officer for the Silicon Valley office. There she finds every day to be a new experience as she gets to know and understand the complex issues that her clients are facing and marry those with the experience PwC has to bring the right solution.
Since technology colors every industry sector – whether finance, retail or healthcare — she enjoys digging in to a fascinating conversation with each and every client about the impact that technology is having on their business, as they identify opportunities and risks at all different time horizons.
Sharing Lessons With Colleagues
Although Millhiser is cognizant of the many opportunities and experiences she has had, looking back she wishes she had realized the great impact she could have had from the very beginning. “You have to be willing to ask for opportunities and speak up if things interest you,” she says. “I always advocate for young people to be willing to articulate the types of experiences they’d like, and then be willing to work hard once they receive that coveted assignment. The risk you take in terms of trying new things can be the best thing you ever did.”
She also advises women to seek three things early in their career: business training, mentoring and broad experience. “Those are three differentiators that I really have benefitted from.”
As women rise through the ranks, she reminds them to be supportive of one another – not just cheering the accomplishments, but having the courage to provide feedback that will help each one continue to excel. “The Silicon Valley practice I lead is full of incredible women who lead large client teams, each of us focused on our clients and the market. We are all very supportive of each other but we know that when you genuinely want your peers to get ahead, you not only celebrate their success but offer constructive feedback so everyone rises together,” she says, noting the value of encouraging women at all stages of their lives and careers.
Becoming Agents of Change
One group that Millhiser supports wholeheartedly is HeforShe, a UN initiative designed to promote gender equality around the world. “I have always felt very fortunate to be part of a family and company that encouraged me,” she says, which is why she knows that it’s vital to commit to women and girls on a global level.
As one of the initial ten corporate HeForShe IMPACT champions, PwC continues to foster advocates as men and women work together to be agents of change all over the world. As part of its commitment, the firm has developed and launched a male-focused gender curriculum designed for global reach so they can educate others to be gender advocates and increase the number of women in leadership roles. While the firm has achieved parity in terms of intake, a major goal is to continue to retain women at higher levels of leadership.
Encouraging Financial Literacy For Young People
Another area where Millhiser is actively involved is “Earn Your Future,” a PWC US program that was launched with the idea to leverage the firm’s people, talent and time to develop the financial skills of young people in the community. “We have to help them develop financial acumen but also be prepared for jobs of tomorrow,” she notes. The initiative involves an interactive curriculum designed to give students in grades 3 to 12 financial and economic knowledge. Educators are supported with tools that include real-time feedback, guides and other resources.
In 2013 the firm set out to reach more than 2.5 million students and educators with an initial commitment of $160 million, including one million service hours. Since then, partners and staff have given over 800,000 service hours, reached 3.5 million students and educators, and made an investment of over $80 million. In 2015, they raised the stakes to $190 million.
The program has been hugely successful in terms of reaching and empowering more educators and students than we ever thought possible, while also inspiring our people to be active in the community,” Millhiser says.
Seeing the World
Having “seen the world through PwC,” Millhiser continues to indulge her love of travel as much as possible, choosing beach locations when she can.
She has enjoyed sharing that international perspective with her 17-year-old daughter. “I’ve been able to show her the world outside the community she lives in. Because of that, she has a natural curiosity and an ability to go into new situations and adapt and make them work.”
Voice of Experience: Jeewon Kim Serrato, Co-Head of the Global Privacy & Data Protection Group, Shearman & Sterling LLP
Voices of Experience, Women in Technology“You need to be true to yourself, especially as a woman in the tech industry,” says Jeewon Kim Serrato. There aren’t many women in cybersecurity so I know I stand out, but I also bring a different and valued perspective,” she says. “I am comfortable in my own skin and have confidence in my skills and capabilities, and I advise others to embrace their differences rather than trying to be someone they are not.”
Building a Career in Data Privacy
After graduating from law school at UC Berkeley, Serrato’s first job was in Washington, D.C., working on the Hill. That early experience where she was actually writing law gave her a whole different perspective, and as she says, molded her into the person she is today. “It was an incredible experience as a young lawyer to be in an environment where I truly realized that laws are made by people.”
That work also exposed her to the issue which has been a constant throughout her career and in which she has become an expert: working to balance national security issues with data privacy.
After leaving the Hill, Serrato worked at a law firm, delving into the intersection of law and policy and privacy issues related to mass media and the digital world, and then served as a senior privacy executive at LexisNexis and as Chief Privacy Officer at Fannie Mae.
The wide range of experience she has had working in public policy, business and private practice gives her a unique perspective, one that she has now brought to Shearman & Sterling in the privacy and data protection practice.
There, she is excited to be building the privacy practice within the firm’s cross-functional global network of lawyers. With offices in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Europe, they oversee myriad issues, from transactions and litigation to regulatory and compliance work.
“When I first joined Shearman, my vision was to develop a comprehensive, 360- degree practice. One of my priorities is to talk to our clients about their needs and help them respond when incidents break despite their best preparatory work.”
Many clients are already reaching out on advisory and compliance issues — curious about how they can prepare for major changes to the European rules coming in 2018.
The most challenging issue she identifies in the privacy industry right now is rapidly evolving regulations. Their global clients are challenged by the desire to have a consistent policy, when even the definition of what is “personal” fluctuates via a patchwork of laws. Even companies that are based in the United States need to consider that it’s likely their data is global, due to cloud storage or traveling employees.
Blending Professional and Personal Activities Helps Create Balance
Serrato knows it’s necessary to focus on work/life balance by prioritizing how you spend your day. “It becomes more difficult as we rise to more senior levels because there are even more demands on our time. And as our work becomes more demanding, our personal life also becomes more complicated.”
That’s where she believes outsourcing can be helpful, whether you rely on your family for assistance or use an online app to help with your errands. “There are so many resources you can use that allow you to outsource tasks that are less important so you can focus on those that are.”
Serrato is involved in a number of industry groups: two noteworthy ones are an appointment to sit on the Department of Homeland Security Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee, and serving as a Dell Security Solutions Chief Information Security Officer Advisory board member.
Not only are these activities relevant to her work with clients, but Serrato sees other benefits to traveling and meeting with peers who are immersed in cybersecurity and data privacy issues. “We learn a lot from each other as we think through the laws and regulations that impact our clients, but these groups also serve as a platform to collectively determine best practices and industry standards to work towards,” she says.
She also appreciates the networking opportunities available at Shearman, and in particular supports the WISER (Women’s Initiative for Success, Excellence and Retention) associate-led group which encourages informal networking.
Though Serrato has enjoyed her time in D.C., she is looking forward to an upcoming transfer to San Francisco, for both personal and professional reasons. She intends to spend more time with family there, but also appreciates the high-profile tech companies with whom she can consult.
Women and STEM: Why We Need to Reclaim Our Belonging
Career Advice, Women in TechnologyWe are increasingly conveying a new message to our daughters and nieces when it comes to girls’ and women’s place in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics): You belong.
“Ada Twist, Scientist” by Andrea Beaty held the top spot on the NYT best sellers among children’s picture books for four weeks as of October 16th (still in the top 10), joining Beaty’s “Rosie Revere, Engineer,” on the list for 76 weeks now.
In August, “Ada’s Ideas: The Story of the Ada Lovelace, the World’s First Computer Programmer” by Fiona Robinson was released. More of the books we give to our children to read are saying, STEM “is for girls” – and not only that, but they are exploring themes like passion, perseverance, and the value of failure.
Ada matters, and so does recognizing all the forgotten or overshadowed women in STEM, because it’s not that women are just entering these fields now, thank you very much. It’s that girls and women are being desperately courted back into them.
A Broken STEM Narrative
In an episode entitled, “When Women Stopped Coding,” NPR noted that women were a pioneering, rising presence in computer science until a stark turning point in 1984: when computers came into homes and the cultural narrative began glorifying them as toys for the boys.
From that year, the rising cultural narrative pushed girls out at home while talented women dropped out of tech in schools. In 1984, women represented 37% of computer science majors and despite the rising demand, today it’s 18%.
This was not the first time capable women were written out of the STEM story, just a recent one. The tired narrative that women don’t belong in STEM replays through the industry stereotypes and cultural dynamics that keep women away, throw an extra hurdle in their path, or drive them out.
Every time a new study (2016) shows that “woman” is still perceived by both men (even more so) and women to be incompatible with “successful scientist” (or programmer, or engineer, or executive, or leader), it’s proof that a limited narrative is still being internalized by our culture.
This “STEM is for men” narrative is dangerous, because it’s also written women right out of a rising proportion of high-reward, high-in-demand jobs. Bad for women, yes. And crippling for the U.S. economy.
Talent Shortage and Competitive Lag
A new report from Accenture entitled “Cracking the Gender Code: Get 3x More Women In Computing” calls the current lack of women a “national crisis with severe implications for America’s place in the global economy and for the future of women.”
Consider that women take home half of computing degrees in Malaysia and nearly half of engineering degrees in Indonesia. In the USA, women receive just 18% of computer science undergraduate degrees and 19% of engineering degrees.
The Accenture report states that job growth within the computer industry is growing at three times the national average, creating unmet demand. In 2015, there were over half a million open computing jobs in the U.S., but only 40,000 computer science graduates.
By 2018, it’s estimated that 2.4 million STEM jobs will be unfilled. The report points out that the shortfall of analysts in the U.S. is greater than the surplus of analysts in India and China combined. Increasingly these jobs are newly emerging jobs that haven’t existed before, requiring new specialized skills.
The glaring reality is that STEM needs women if the U.S. economy hopes to retain any leadership in digital innovation.
Women Sidelined Within Economy
An AAUW report states that engineering and computing represent 80% of the jobs in STEM, offering the highest return on investment and best job prospects.
Studies have shown that STEM jobs pay women better relatively to other jobs.
But women are least represented in engineering (13% of jobs) and computer science (26%), and the Accenture analysis showed that the gender pay gap within U.S. computing roles widened by 48% between 2011 and 2015, as women are missing out on the high-value roles.
Bringing women back into computer science isn’t just about progress in STEM. It’s about “bringing women back to the center of our economy.”
Encouraging Girls and Young Women In Tech
The Accenture report recommends a three-stage strategy to “more than triple the number of women working in computing in the U.S. to 3.9 million by 2025”, or 39% of the workforce. This would generate nearly $300 billion in additional cumulative earnings for women.
“The keys to improvement include: sparking the interest of girls in junior high school, sustaining their commitment in high school where early gains are often lost,” states the report, “and inspiring college undergraduates by reframing computer curriculums.”
Equal exposure is not enough, but actually re-tailoring educational programs towards girls, young women, and women – at all levels. Interventions at the college level would only result in 1.9 million in computing in 2025 (1.2 million now).
The first-ever technology and engineering literacy test in 2014 found that eighth grade girls (45%) were more proficient at engineering and technology related tasks than boys (42%).
A few years later, those same young women are less likely to take the related AP exams (only 20% of computer science exam takers) and less likely in their first college year to intend to major in these fields.
Accenture states that 69% of the potential growth in the computer pipeline is down to attracting girls at junior high age, as 74% of women in computing now were exposed in junior high.
This demands exposing girls to coding in more attractive ways (eg gaming), changing stereotypes, and increasing awareness of all parties (teachers, parents) about how computing can help change the world for the better.
Multiple initiatives here and globally are dedicated to recruiting girls and women into STEM- such as Million Women Mentors, the WISE campaign which seeks to bring one million women into STEM in the UK, and Girls Who Code.
At the high school level is when interest in computer science drops. The report recommends redesigning high school courses, creating grassroots campaigns around the difference STEM can make, and attracting more women teachers.
Supporting Women In Tech
At the college level, we’ve witnessed that strong, focused efforts can result in dramatic changes.
In 2016, Dartmouth graduated more female (54%) than male engineers, a first for a national research university. The program features more collaboration, a supportive network with diverse role models, and a “hands-on, project-based” approach, which exposes students to engineering who may not have chosen it.
In 2016, Harvey Mudd graduated a majority of women in computer science (54%) and physics (52%) for the first time ever, having already graduated a majority in engineering two years ago. Importantly, 64% of the 2016 computer science graduates who had accepted a full-time job had a position in the tech industry, compared to 30% in 2011. Only ten years ago, women were only 10% of computer science majors.
Under President Maria Klawe since 2006, Harvey Mudd has famously made three key changes that removed obstacles for women, such as reworking introductory courses to attract women and integrating research opportunities, and it only took a few years to quadruple CS majors and less than a decade to arrive to the landmark classes of 2014 and 2016.
At Harvey Mudd in 2017, six of the school’s seven department chairs and 38% of its professors will be women.
Biasing Recruitment towards Women
It’s not surprising that a slew of diversity apps designed to help to mitigate bias in hiring and promotion have been rising out of Silicon Valley, in many cases led by women who have faced bias in action in the tech industry.
These ideas help reduce the biases that keep women and minorities out of tech roles. But after such acute exclusion with such growing demand, it will take more than eliminating bias against women to address the massive talent gaps. It will take educational strategies that lean in towards girls and women.
Representation, visibility, and mentorship of women in these fields remains paramount. It starts to rewrite the broken cultural narrative and reminds both girls and women that we do belong – from our children’s books to our leadership.
Being visible is arguably the most influential thing an engineer, scientist, programmer, mathematician, and executive in any of these fields can do to encourage change.
Because it’s not just that girls and women belong. It’s that they are needed.