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.
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.
4 Myths Debunked about Working in Technology
Life Hacks, Women in TechnologyMyth #1: The best tech jobs are with Internet and social media companies.
Internet and social media companies are grabbing headlines for their outsized IPOs and merger prices. But does that really mean that the best tech jobs are in this space?
It’s important to consider what you want out of your career according to Andrea Gellert, senior vice president of marketing for OnDeck, a financial tech company that provides financing to small businesses.
Gellert comments,
Myth #2: Working in technology means working in a technology company.
Technology plays a huge role not only in business, but also in medicine, the arts and many other fields. Unfortunately, in the arts and similar fields, it is often difficult to find stable work with a reasonable paycheck. These fields are embracing technology and there are a growing number of opportunities to work in these fields by focusing on their technology needs. “I love the arts but I don’t have the financial means to support myself on the typical museum salary,” notes a client service director for a company that provides software solutions to museums and galleries worldwide. “In my current role I work closely with curators and museum leadership around the globe. Technology offered me an opportunity to turn an avocation into a career.”
Not only is technology creating a wide range of opportunities to work in fields that one doesn’t normally associate with technology, as the tech industry grows and matures, it needs professionals with a wide range of skills and is reaching out to people from a broad range of backgrounds.
Myth #3: You have to have a tech degree and you have to know how to program.
“There is still a bias in biotech and life sciences that you need to have a background in those fields in order to work in those industries. That used to be the case in technology, but it is no longer the case,” says Erin Lubien, who after many years in technology, financial services and investor relations, now runs her own consulting firm.
OnDeck’s Gellert adds, “There are a variety of functions at top tech companies that don’t involve programming, for instance marketing, sales, analytics and HR. If you’re interested in how technology is transforming payments and finance, you can likely find a fit no matter your skill set.”
Myth #4: If you have the skills – the jobs will come to you.
During her tech career, Lubien found that many job seekers assumed that they could build a program or solution and employers would line up with offers, but that is not enough to get the job since companies are looking for people who can work as part of a team.
Lubien states,
Liz Jackson, a web developer at Agency Fusion, an online advertising company, provided a list of reasons people gave her to not go into technology.
Jackson shares some of the biggest myths that she heard about the tech industry and summarized these types of comments into three statements to show the stereotypical nature of them. She says that they are all a variation of “Your coworkers will be so awkward – programmers are so weird” or, “You’re going to be bored to death – web development is worse than accounting” and lastly, “Well, you’ll be the only woman in your office.”
Jackson goes on to note, “I’ve met some of the most interesting, personable web developers and programmers since taking my first job as a developer. Just like any office, there are a wide variety of personalities and backgrounds.”
Do Your Homework, Ignore the Myths
The technology field is booming. And that’s good news for professional women. As the industry expands, there is a need for workers and companies are seeking to improve their diversity not only because it is good for public relations but because it is good business.
By Beth Senko
Voice of Experience: Daria Rippingale, CEO, BillPro
Voices of Experience, Women in Technology“When you’re first starting out, knowing the people above you have much more knowledge and experience can feel intimidating,” acknowledges Daria Rippingale, CEO of Australia-based BillPro. “But I realized at a young age that one of the best ways to really learn is to dive in and give it a go. When looking back, I feel this has been a significant factor to the acceleration of my career.”
If ever faced with a task where she may feel daunted, Rippingale says her strategy is to just jump in. “Experiencing fear or anxiety about taking on a new challenge is not a weakness. It’s what you do about it that defines you. Holding yourself back is not beneficial to anyone. You need to be focused; stay in your own lane; and be aware of your individual skills and contributions. Then push yourself forward with confidence,” she says.
Jumping in To Build the Career She Wanted
Rippingale has definitely never hesitated to jump in. She always knew she wanted to be a business leader, having grown up with a strong role model in her mom, the National Director of the Health Department in Australia. She started as a digital marketer in the gaming industry exploring metrics, and then moved to the payments department where she managed the money coming in and out of games.
“I realized how much I enjoyed working in finance and wanted to stay involved with payments. So I found a payment startup, knocked on their door and introduced myself, and that was the start,” she says.
By the age of 26 she was promoted to CEO, overseeing 14 men, all of whom were older than her. “I was aware that taking on this position at my age would come with certain challenges, but I’m a solution-oriented person; I knew I would figure it out,” she says. And that she did, expanding into Canada, Hong Kong, the United States and throughout Europe, transforming the company into a global financial institution.
Over the years, the industry has expanded, in large part because of the ubiquity of social media as well as the global nature of business. “It used to be a big leap to think about doing business with someone in the U.K., but having everyone connected has had a huge impact on business.” For example, she now works with lots of U.S. companies, where even three years ago, the prospect of billing internationally sounded like a logistical nightmare. “Geographical boundaries are disappearing as a barrier.”
Success is Never Based on Gender
Rippingale has been aware of gender barriers over the years, but believes most are self-made. While she sees how women may be intimated, that’s never been an issue for her; in fact, she says she relishes these perceived “gender barriers” because of her personality. “I enjoy when a man is condescending; it makes me instantly know they lack self-confidence, and I won’t waste my time with them,” she says.
Women have to stop thinking about gender and just focus on their capabilities. “In my company your value is in what you contribute. We don’t have men and women; we have a team of ambitious and intelligent individuals who each contribute to the positive corporate culture we’ve developed. It has nothing to do with gender.”
Although today’s payment companies are in many ways the new iteration of male-dominated banking, the men she deals with now are “younger and hipper.” That means that while it’s still a “boy’s club,” she finds this younger generation to be easier to crack as a woman — dealing with peers who are more enlightened than the gatekeepers of old.
“When I started in the gaming industry there were 53 guys, and three women: the “model,” someone in customer service and me doing analytics. I spent three days feeling diminished and decided I was done with that: I was here to achieve and moved on to do that.”
Women Uniquely Qualified for Startups
Women and startups are an ideal match because of natural personal traits that women exude, from their capacity for multitasking to their propensity to display grit – the ability to bear and get through challenging situations.
Where others see inequality, she is impressed with the amazing strides women have made: Considering that women in her grandmother’s generation didn’t even work, she views as incredible the rise in stature women have achieved, with essentially a history of only 50 years in the workforce.
“The women I have hired are all very successful and very confident; I tell them to be empowered by that success, to always remember how they got to where they are.”
A Role Model and Champion
Active in a Women in Payments group, Rippingale is also highly involved in one-on-one mentoring to help women just starting in the industry.
She also is an avid supporter of the fact that it need have zero impact on a woman’s career when she has a child. “We are a digital business, and I have built the company to offer great maternity and paternity leave, with multiple options for how we make it work.”
Some women might want a home office to help them get back in the groove before they return and others may need increased flexibility. The company offers a reintroduction program and employees are encouraged to stay involved as much or as little as they want while they are out.
“I’ve been on the journey with friends and family when they were making this life-altering transition. I can only appreciate just how hard it would be to take your head out of work mode, care for a baby and then jump back in. I have great respect for any woman (or man) who is juggling the work-life-family balance. As a CEO, I think it’s imperative to set the standard by providing the required support and flexibility to allow them to continue a thriving career alongside their new family priorities.”
Making Friends Wherever She Goes
With all the travel she does for work, Rippingale enjoys developing friendship circles around the world. “I love meeting people and learning about their culture, their stories, and the nuances that make them unique.” In what little spare time she has, she enjoys learning languages and experimenting with cuisines of the world. “I am obsessed with vegetarian meals and love cooking ethnic foods; it’s the perfect complement to my affinity for all things global.”
Why it’s a bigger Issue than work-family conflict
Career Advice, Work-LifeBy Aimee Hansen
The culture of chronic overwork isn’t working in many ways, but there’s one way it works too well: upholding gender inequality.
Professor Robin Ely of Harvard Business School, co-author of a recent study released by the Gender Initative, tells us “It is the culture of overwork—not women’s work-family conflict—that locks gender inequality in place.”
According to Ely and her co-authors, the focus on work-family conflict is a gendered diversion from the bigger 24/7 work week problem that deflects long hours as a women’s issue. We spoke to Ely about the dilemma, what needs to change and what women can do.
The 24/7 Work Week Strains Both Sexes
In an interview-based study of a global consulting firm, co-authors Ely, Irene Padavic of Florida State University and Erin Reid of Boston University found that men had the same turn-over rates as women and reported the 24/7 hour work week was just as compromising to their family lives, too.
Reid wrote in Harvard Business Review that men reported feeling “overworked and underfamilied.”
Yet despite much evidence that overwork backfires for employees and companies, a culture of overwork continues to remain the norm for being seen as competitive.
Ely noted, “For employees, being needed 24/7 is like a symbol of status; it means we’re important.”
In fact, the researchers found often the extra hours are spent on proving importance. Ely shared, “in the case study, many people said that they actually wasted a lot of time; for example, they spent a lot of time perfecting their work product, not because the client needed it to be perfect, but because it was a way to prove how smart they are to each other. That kind of work doesn’t contribute to delivering value but it does perpetuate the 24/7 standard.”
With both men and women struggling with the 24/7 expectation, what differed was how women and men cope and the resulting impact on their careers.
Women Are Overt In Coping, Men Are More Discreet
Women tended to make transparent and formal arrangements, such as reduced hours or other family-friendly policies which often come with a “flexibility stigma” and backfire to derail their careers. Reid wrote that men who were transparent about difficulties in managing hours were also penalized, harshly, for not being perceived as a devoted employee.
Men, however, are much more likely to cope informally to handle time pressures under-the-radar, while still appearing to be fully devoted. In research with the same firm, Reid found that nearly a third of the men interviewed used discreet hour-cutting strategies such as lining up local clients, building alliances with colleagues, not revealing their whereabouts between phone calls, and “passing” at working 80 hour weeks when they simply weren’t.
Faking it worked and these men did as well on performance reviews as those pulling long hours. What mattered was performance coupled with the perception they were overworking. In other words, being an 80 hour devotee mostly has to do with appearance.
“Passing” is Tempting, But Not The Real Answer
If you’re beginning to think you could become skilled at “passing” yourself, there is a gender trap. Even if deception was the secret to career advancement, it’s harder for women. It’s easier for men, in Reid’s words, “to stray while passing as fully devoted.”
The bigger issue, Ely emphasized, is an underlying culture that holds up 24/7 as the norm, and implicitly disadvantages women by doing so.
“Despite the increased flexibility that technology has allowed, many organizations continue to reward ‘face time’ as well as the appearance of constant work (emails sent late at night, for example),” said Ely. “Couple this practice with the fact that when women do take advantage of flexibility, they are presumed to be doing so for family reasons while men are more often assumed to be leaving the office early to, say, meet with clients, and you have a situation in which employees feel compelled to be “present” (whether in the office or online) all the time and women are seen as less capable of meeting that demand.”
“Passing”, while covert defiance, isn’t as easy for women and falsely reaffirms the 24/7 norm is necessary to performance.
What Can Women Do?
Overwork is a cultural and industry-level issue but women can get savvy to their surroundings.
“Women, specifically, should look for signs of whether working mothers who take advantage of family accommodations experience career derailments,” Ely told us. “Companies often tout flexibility policies that appeal to women with children, but in practice taking advantage of those policies means being seen as lacking leadership potential.”
Ely advised to ask critical questions: “Can women who use family accommodation policies maintain the careers they want, or are they shunted into less prestigious, less powerful roles?”
“Ultimately, women need some key supports,” said Ely, “including organizations that don’t equate having children with a lack of commitment to our jobs and managers who give us opportunities to develop and shine even if we’re not available 24/7.”
She also iterated the importance of supportive family and partners, and not necessarily putting your career second. “We need to visit and revisit the social contract with our partner to make sure that we each are living a life that is consistent with our individual and collective goals.”
The work-family discussion is too small if being a 24/7 employee remains the benchmark. This issue is bigger than gender, because it’s not only women who suffer, even if it’s their careers that do.
“Research indicates that companies can be productive and competitive without demanding constant availability from their employees,” said Ely, “if we could start to see that realized in practice, more and more organizations might be willing to break this mould.”
Looking to get to the C-Suite? Here are six steps to career success
Career Advice, Guest Contribution, LeadershipCareer paths can be unpredictable, peppered with pivot-points, and rife with opportunities that can make – or break – your trajectory. The path to the C-Suite isn’t a straight line, nor is it one you can coast along. If you aren’t scared just a little bit along the way, you probably aren’t moving fast enough or taking (informed) risks!
Getting to the C-Suite can be a daunting journey for even the most seasoned professionals. Hard work alone is not enough, and can actually keep you stuck at your current career level rather than catapult you forward.
If hard work isn’t the answer, how do you get to the C-Suite? I called several leaders that I know and respect for their advice. Here’s what they had to say:
Never stop learning
Pay attention to the leaders you admire and seek to understand what makes them stand out. “The biggest mistake a leader can make is to stop learning,” shared Rose Else-Mitchell, Executive Vice President at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
“Modeling continuous learning creates a culture that benefits everyone, encourages risk, innovation and self-responsibility.”
Seek out daily opportunities to learn and demonstrate your readiness for a promotion. Don’t wait for a bigger title to show others that you’re capable of operating at that next leadership level today.
Have a vision
“Hope” is not a strategy to adopt when it comes to managing your career. Whether your goal is to achieve the top job, move to a vice president role, or from manager to director, you need a plan — and to execute that plan!
“Make sure it’s your plan.” advises Barbara Dondiego, CMO at AVOXI. “If you choose to ‘Lean In,’ make sure you understand your reasons for doing so. Run towards the hard problems that others step away from. It’s the best preparation for the C-Suite you can ever have.”
Broaden your point of view
In the early stages of our career, we tend to have a narrow point of view, and be focused on our immediate function and area of expertise. Success in the C-Suite requires that you have a broad leadership point of view.
Susan Reynolds, former COO at Naviasys, recommends that you “be a business person who understands your business or profession. Focus on what matters to your company and know your stuff. Make your company profitable by contributing to the skills of your group, and be accountable for the failures, as well as the successes.”
As a CXO, you’ll need to understand the whole business: from finance to operations, technology to HR. Get involved and volunteer for cross-functional projects. If you’re not equipped to spend time in these parts of your organization, then take a class, study, seek out a mentor from across the company, and start talking the language of business.
Nurture professional relationships
“Success in your career is driven by the relationships you form,” says Judy Batenburg, SVP of IT Services at Starz. “Get to know your allies, those who can help you move forward, and also those who might hinder your success. Work to cultivate strong professional relationships.”
Relationships matter, especially when it comes to moving your career forward. Why? Because the senior roles aren’t (usually) filled as a result of a job advertisement or resumes submitted online. Before a senior role even hits the job market, conversations will have been held along the lines of, “Who do we know that could fill this role?” “Who do we want to invite to join our team?”
Make sure to cultivate your professional relationships now, so that your name is the first that is suggested. Your future career progression may depend on it!
Invest in your support network
Shannon Sisler, SVP of Talent Management Human Resources at Western Union, recognized that as she moved through her career, there were ever increasing personal and professional demands on her time. Having a strong support network is vital, and can include someone that takes care of the yard, more flexible child support, an awesome assistant at work, a personal trainer, and even someone that can ensure you get regular date nights with a partner. Shannon advises: “Don’t feel guilty asking for help… you can’t be everything to everyone. Invest your efforts in the personal and professional areas that matter most!”
Don’t watch the game. Play the Game.
As you climb the corporate ladder, you will encounter hurdles. You can either rail against the system and refuse to play – or, you can choose to learn the game, play the game, and ultimately change the game.
Simone Reynolds, Chief Human Resources Officer at Coalfire Systems Inc. advises “Be authentic! Don’t change to fit the mold instead stay within the guardrails and be authentically you. In doing so you build trust, and the ability to influence others in a multitude of ways. The best way to change things is to work the system not revolt against it.”
Your Steps to the C-Suite
There is no one path to reach the C-suite. This is your career journey to find and forge. You can either wing it and hope that your smarts land you your dream role, or you can be deliberate, thoughtful, and take control of the process. Experience has shown that the latter approach is more likely to result in a successful outcome. Only you can choose to invest the time in developing your self and demonstrating your leadership capabilities that set you up for success today — and for tomorrow.
Morag Barrett is the best-selling author of Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationships and CEO of SkyeTeam, an international HR consulting and leadership development company. Morag’s experience ranges from senior executive coaching to developing leaders and teams across Europe, America and Asia. SkyeTeam works with clients in a range of industries including: Healthcare, Telecoms, Mining, Manufacturing, Engineering, and Technology. www.skyeteam.com
The Power of Reflection (On Peak Work Experiences)
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist
Have you ever thought about your peak experience at work? A time, team or task where you literally had a good time and felt great about the project? Maybe it was the achievements, or accolades, or the people involved or the fact that you just liked the task in hand? You see, the point is that everyone is different and what we need to feel good at work is in part, a lot to do with our personality.
When coaching, I often run an assessment called the Hogan on my clients as it can help identify what is important to you, and only you. So, for some people, it is the power and recognition that feels good, while others like the rewards that can be banked or even the feeling of putting out an aesthetically perfect project. Others are people or relationship focused and want to have fun at work or feel highly affiliated with the team or the firm or the values attached to the work.
Either way, stopping to think about when you were happiest and looking deeper at those elements that created that good feeling is a very good exercise to do once a year or so. Equally looking at projects or tasks that brought you down is worth examination also.
Culture at work ( or how we do things around here) is very much made up of behaviors from you and the other people in the company. You have a personality, and that is fairly intrinsic but what does change is the environment that you work in and that effects how you act and react.
A fun but thought provoking book to read on personalities is called ‘”The Chameleon- Life Changing Wisdom for Anyone Who Has a Personality or Knows Someone who Does” as it will help you understand yourself and others around you. If you want an academic read, i would recommend Dr. Robert Hogan’s “Personality and the Fate of Organizations.
Also, knowing that you have “go to” behaviors is something that is invaluable in certain situations because as soon as learn what types of situations and people stress you out, then you can see your reaction in your mind’s eye and you get to choose how that plays out. Caveat, you can get stuck in roles and yes people see you for your social identities way more than they should ( such as gender and their notions of “how women should be” etc) but you get to truly choose your behavior if you start to do this work to know yourself better.
If you are interested in hiring an executive coach to help you navigate your career then please email nicki@theglasshammer.com for more information
Voice of Experience: Rebecca Kniesel, Head of Institutional Marketing, Voya
Voices of Experience“To stand out, I suggest volunteering for projects outside of your comfort zone,” recommends Voya’s Rebecca Kniesel. “I wasn’t always comfortable at certain points along my career journey; but, you have to be open to these situations and get as comfortable being uncomfortable as you can.”
Charting Her Own Course in the Financial Industry
Kniesel began her career with the consumer retail banking division of MBNA America (now Bank of America), one of the first credit card companies to pioneer affinity marketing.
Living in Wilmington, Delaware at the time, she decided she wanted to head to the bright lights of the big city and went from credit card banking to investment banking, where she was hired in a marketing capacity for the syndicated loan division of Bankers Trust. Two months after she joined the firm, it merged with Deutsche Bank and her role changed significantly. Rebecca had the opportunity to join DB Capital Partners in which she focused on marketing and sales for 3rd party private equity funds. It was a big shift from credit card marketing and was a true investment banking job which included lots of late nights and long hours.
She then pursued an opportunity with Chase Private Bank – just three months before its merger with J.P. Morgan – and she spent four years there in marketing for the Latin American and U.S. private banks, as well as two years in marketing for institutional asset management. She later moved on to BlackRock (which had just announced its merger with Merrill Lynch Investment Management), in the dual role of marketing and consultant relations. Following this period, she returned to J.P. Morgan in a marketing capacity focused on fixed income for about seven years before she learned of a great opportunity at Voya, which she says has been a fantastic opportunity to round out her background.
Kniesel’s career path includes 3 mega-mergers early in her career, which is a big reason she’s had to learn how to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. “The industry changes constantly, your career can change on a dime and you need to be flexible enough to navigate that”, she says.
As Kniesel’s degree was in psychology, she’s had to learn a lot on the job and is a big proponent of encouraging new entrants to the field who may not have a finance or mathematical background. “I have charted my own path and have had to teach myself on the job,” she says. “I am proud of the financial and technical expertise I bring to my current position and know that if I can accomplish that, others with a similar educational background can too.”
She says that initially she felt self-conscious working with people who had learned the fundamentals of the business in school. But what she realized – and shares with younger professionals rising through the ranks – is that the industry is “not impossible to learn, even though people might make you feel like it is. Don’t be afraid to ask questions; people expect you to,” she says.
Currently, Kniesel is immersed in planning an annual investment seminar that the institutional division runs each year for its top clients, from institutional plan sponsors to defined contribution plan sponsors, insurance clients and consultants. The event includes a day of presentations, coupled with breakout sessions and topped off with a keynote speaker and dinner.
“I’m really excited about the agenda we are building for this years’ seminar, with current topics that showcase Voya’s capacity as a solutions provider,” she says.
It’s an exciting time to be in the industry, given the changes wrought by the digital age and what that means for financial services. With everyone constantly on their smartphones and being bombarded with options that allow them to make decisions on everything from groceries to finances on their devices, traditional marketers have an intriguing task to take a business that’s traditionally relationship-oriented and build marketing programs and content that breaks through the noise.
The Challenge of Increasing Women’s Participation in the Financial Industry
Expectations of the traditional work environment in the financial industry typically lack flexibility, which Kniesel sees as an ongoing, but unnecessary, barrier to keeping women in the industry. “As a manager, I want to understand what helps my team achieve their best at work,” she says, adding that all employees have responsibilities outside their time in the office, whether that’s caring for a sick parent or a young child. “If they work better at 3 a.m., then that’s what they should do. It’s unfortunate that in the financial world, that mindset is still not pervasive because it creates a barrier for women and not just those with children: ‘Do I spend my life in an industry that doesn’t allow me to juggle all aspects of my life the way I need to, or do I go elsewhere?’”
She says that women who have achieved success in the industry need to continue to push the envelope to make this “a career our children will continue to want.”
As a member of Voya’s New York Women’s Network, Kniesel is excited about partnering with the human resources department on a related area – welcoming women back to the office after returning from maternity leave. Companies have made huge strides in this area and she’s passionate about doing even more, particularly as the transition back to the office after maternity leave is an incredibly vulnerable time. If not handled well, it can significantly impact a woman’s decision to remain in the workforce.
She knows the challenges well, since she herself has a three-year old son who “is her whole world and has changed the way I look at life and work.”
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