Let's be honest, no industry is immune from sexism, racism, or ageism for that matter. The tech industry is no different. Moving past the reputation of Digg as a boys club where SOME members use it as their personal platform to bash women or Matt Aimonetti's recent asinine presentation at the Golden Gate Ruby Conference portraying pornographic images of women touting taglines like "perform like a pr0n star", Pew studies show that women now outnumber men on the internet--including major social networks like Twitter and Facebook. However, many women in technology and social media still face a digital ceiling. Women make up approximately 20% (and sometimes less) of panelists at major tech conferences. Even fewer are asked to be keynote speakers. Furthermore, women in tech are rarely quoted and sought out as experts by the mainstream media covering technology. In other words, women in tech and social media are not valued as opinion leaders nearly as much as their male colleagues. In reality though, there are plenty of highly qualified industry women who would make fantastic panelists or provide reporters with thorough analyses on the latest research, trends and general commentary on tech and social media.
So who's really to blame for creating the digital ceiling? And what can we do to break through it once and for all?
Women in tech and social media industries need to do a much better job at promoting themselves as "experts" in their field and showing off their work. Women can aggressively promote themselves by:
"If someone wants to make the web do something new, thereby changing what it is, what exactly is in their way," said Dave Winer in response to the blog post "How can the web truly be 'open' when only young white male geeks get to decide what the web is?"
Winer raises a point (although he could have also acknowledged some of the very real challenges women face launching tech startups). When Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort Page, and Jory Des Jardins became frustrated with the male dominated blogging network they teamed up to form BlogHer, the largest women's blogging network in the world. When Shireen Mitchell was fed up enough with the lack of diversity in social media and tech conferences she started Social Media Women of Color and helped spearhead the Fem2.0 conference. Amy Muller, cofounded Get Satisfaction to address the lack of an online community for customer engagement and support. Several of these forward thinking women will be profiled throughout the week here on the Fast Company blog, leading up to the 2nd annual Women Who Tech TeleSummit. They will discuss their personal experiences breaking through the digital ceiling, launching their own startups, and their battles and successes along the way.
Related: The Most Influential Women in Technology
Related: Most Influential Women in Web 2.0
Related Stories: | Topics:Innovation, Technology, Design, Ethonomics, Women in Tech, social media, , Dave Winer, Matt Aimonetti, Facebook Inc., Digg Inc., Twitter Inc. |
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Recent Comments | 11 Total
May 3, 2009 at 9:42pm by Rosemary Bayer
An excellent idea - women in technical roles should strive to be more visible! This doesn't, however, explain why women have only 22-26% (depending on the study) of computer-related jobs. Women are bigger users of the internet, but women are not creators of technology nor fairly represented in the business world of IT, both in sheer numbers as well as position. There are a number of reasons why women in technology don't stay there these days - one of the top ones being that there are so few exec level women in technology, and so few other women that we can feel isolated.
And since the latest data show less than one half of one percent of women entering college are declaring computer majors, this is unlikely to improve soon - or at all, if things don't change. The work the Michigan Council of Women in Technology (MCWT) has done, and other recent research, shows that girls are either unaware of the choices for working in technology fields, or feel it is uninteresting and socially irrelevant. We all need to work to ward teaching our girls from early on that technology is fun (let them build robots!), and fun (let them create their own computer games!) and relevant to society. The majority of medical students are now women, showing that we are capable and interested in technology when it's relevant to us. So, introduce your local high school girls to the CIO of Leader Dogs for the Blind, or teach them how to use ALICE to design their own games - then maybe we can start to have an impact on this persistent problem!
Events like the Who Tech TeleSummit are great and groups like the MCWT really do help raise our visibility as well as retention, which will ultimately help solve the numbers problem.
Rosemary K. Bayer
Michigan Council of Women in Technology Foundation
http://mcwtf.org
May 4, 2009 at 9:23am by Anne Dougherty
Women in technical roles definitely need to strive to be more visible. I think we have reached that stage where a lot of us are now battling the sub-rosa self-discrimination that says: I broke through. I'm doing work that I love. What does it matter if I'm not considered "elite" enough to get recognized. The people who "matter" know I do good work. Toot your own horn! Ignore the voices that might be saying "what is *she* doing here?" even if they're coming from inside your own head.
The harder part, as Rosemary described, is going to be reforming culture so that it tells girls they can be valued for their brains as well as other parts of their bodies. If girls see that women are being rewarded for being smart, daring, and, for lack of a better word, geeky, eventually they'll get the message. One great, if small step forward, came on a recent CSI where they were discussing a faux version of Star Trek. One of the techs women techs in the lab when asked why she admired the cardboard female character on the show replied, "Yeah, I know she was underwritten but she was the only molecular biologist on TV." We need more of that...only better written!
May 4, 2009 at 9:24am by Anne Dougherty
Women in technical roles definitely need to strive to be more visible. I think we have reached that stage where a lot of us are now battling the sub-rosa self-discrimination that says: I broke through. I'm doing work that I love. What does it matter if I'm not considered "elite" enough to get recognized. The people who "matter" know I do good work. Toot your own horn! Ignore the voices that might be saying "what is *she* doing here?" even if they're coming from inside your own head.
The harder part, as Rosemary described, is going to be reforming culture so that it tells girls they can be valued for their brains as well as other parts of their bodies. If girls see that women are being rewarded for being smart, daring, and, for lack of a better word, geeky, eventually they'll get the message. One great, if small step forward, came on a recent CSI where they were discussing a faux version of Star Trek. One of the women techs in the lab when asked why she admired the cardboard female character on the show replied, "Yeah, I know she was underwritten but she was the only molecular biologist on TV." We need more of that...only better written!
May 4, 2009 at 1:45pm by Naomi Mc
While it is indeed important to give women practical tips on breaking the digital ceiling and creating fora where women who tech can come together, there really is more that men can be doing. As Aimonetti's frankly embarrassing presentation shows, men who tech haven't realised that the 1970s are over and putting up porn pictures of women in their presentations is unacceptable and downright creepy. I've blogged on this here: http://avaginadentata.blogspot.com/
May 4, 2009 at 2:49pm by Ondrej Capka
Scary. If we will once divide internet and set up "only for girls" and "only for boys" each trying to outperform the other in the exactly same criteria, nothing good can evolve from that. The worst thing ladies can do is to try to be better boys than boys. Ladies can be always only second rate boys. But can be first rate ladies. I look forward to see "ladynternet" soon ;)
Don't understand me wrong i don't consider tech to be an only-for-boys-playground. On the opposite.
I just see a huge waste here. There are more women on internet. Thus it should be easier for ladies to design content for ladies, and from there its close to tech. Use what you have and beat them (them, since im real anti-tech).
May 5, 2009 at 10:07am by Allyson Kapin
Ondrej thanks for your comments. I think you misunderstood my article. I'm not trying to advocate the development of a "ladynternet" where women rule the tech world (though would that be such a bad thing? Haha - just kidding). In all seriousness, my article discusses the lack of women in tech and social media represented at major conferences, as opinion leaders by the mainstream media, etc. The article also highlights ways women can be more aggressive to promote themselves.
I would like to know why you feel that it would be easier for women to "design content for ladies" especially when you don't advocate a web "only for girls" and "only for boys"? Do you feel that women are not capable of writing content, developing software and programming for both women and men?
May 5, 2009 at 11:40am by Ondrej Capka
So in all seriousness: I think that's its easier for women to design a content for women and for men to design a content for men.
Thus in times when there were more male users of internet it was easier for men to be opinion leaders. (Its one of the fundamentals of social psychology that the most influential of the group is the one who represents the common traits of the group members, not necessarily the best of them in any sense.)
Recently women outnumbered men on internet I expect the situation to change.
Given the fact that most of the population is divided in just two groups: men and women, the struggle to empower women is always seen as fight against men. This fact is often overlooked in attempt to established more women friendly environment. I have myself witnessed (and participated on) several such projects in industry (much smaller scale of particular organizations). All attempts of "having more women in management" failed. It backfired.
But two things worked:
- strict "equal policy"
- result orientation (i.e. customer demands satisfaction)
The first point is clear. The second one is more important. The question is what the shift in male/female ratio on internet means in terms of demand. Different content? Is there any difference in favored technology? Different heroes (for users)?
What are the most popular games among women? What are the strengths of majority of women? Thus what is the best starting point. What improvements would broader participation of women bring?
I said "Scary" because I saw the same pattern here, which I have seen several times fail. If we want to change the situation, we should start from what is the demand (result orientation) and what the majority of women can do better than the majority of men.
To answer this questions is not in the best interest of women rights movements but it is in the interest of all of us and last but not least in the interest of business that drives the internet. Thus it works. The other way round it will get stuck with proclamations.
I do really wish this to work.
Btw.: According to 2007 U.S. census there is 19% difference between men and women in salaries, 1,5% when education and professional experience taken into account. Compare to 15% difference between left-handed and right-handed. - Joke, but fact ;)
May 5, 2009 at 3:16pm by Daniel Diachun
I have noticed that attendance at technology conferences, especially early adopter conferences, have decidedly more male attendees.
What I don't understand is why these conferences have so females attendees. Why aren't they there? I can come up with a variety of ideas but they are just wild guesses.
Seems like the early attendees of tech conferences in new areas will end up often being the leaders in those new technologies. Based on those observations -- then to have greater women representation in technical roles, especially at higher levels -- need to get women involved earlier in the life cycle of new technology.
I see other comments talking about getting younger girls interested in technology and I think this can be important.
--
Exchange Server Consultants
http://www.cssi.us
May 6, 2009 at 9:51am by simone brummelhuis
Our business magazine for female internet heroes, http://www.thenextwomen.com, was born from the idea of making women in startups, tech, social media more visible, notable and quotable. The Next Women is the first Women’s Internet Business Magazine, with a focus on startups and growing businesses, led, founded or invested in by women. We bring news on business, events, funding and tech from a female angle and interview and profile Female Business Heroes, make them notable and quotable.
We are the female Business Week, the female Techcrunch and the business Red.
We compiling a database on female founders, CxO’s and VC’s of internet companies.
In the meantime we also have become a community with pitching & funding events, dinners, meetups etc.
Anyone who wants to be a next woman, contributing from The Valley, be in touch. Reg. Simone Brummelhuis
September 13, 2009 at 7:24pm by Ted Turner
Women make up approximately 20% (and sometimes less) of panelists at major tech conferences.
^^This is only because there are less women working in the industry overall, in lower positions as well. resveratrol reviews
September 28, 2009 at 11:34pm by Jenny Harding
It's time for women to step up and be heard; roar if you will (and roar loud)!
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