This week I was lucky enough collect an award at Red Magazine’s Hot Women Awards 2011, which celebrates successful women in industry. What made the experience
all the more rewarding was being able to spend some time with a group
of women at the top of their fields. We even got to shake hands with Sam
Cam.
I was particularly pleased to chat to two women who are leading the charge for female technology innovators everywhere: Cary Marsh, who founded MyDeo, and Kate Burns,
the outgoing Senior Vice-President of AOL Europe and former head of
Google U.K. Both are smart, impressive women who have trail-blazed their
way to the very top of the tech industry and should serve as inspiration
to all aspiring Lady Geeks out there.
Yet while their progress is heartening, it only puts into perspective
the uphill struggle women face in an industry where only 18% of employees are female. The passing of Steve Jobs last month made me wonder how long it will be before a woman reaches the same exulted status. Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg, Page, Brin, and Bezos: All the technology giants of recent years are men.
Of course questions need to be asked as to what the industry needs to
address the imbalance, and first instinct is to assume that, like many
things, it’s merely too used to being one big boys club. But I believe
the problem goes deeper than that.
These days just as many women as men count themselves as tech users (see my previous posts)
and teenage girls and teenage boys have almost identical Internet usage
statistics. Yet when it comes to careers, boys are five times more likely to go into technology. Why is this? At what point are we losing our girl geeks to other industries?
The problem is largely one of perception. Girls tend to want careers
that lean toward what they deem as “creative”–advertising, PR, and
publishing all remain popular choices. Why should they take an interest
in tech when all that’s on offer for a teenager is a choice between an
Information Technology class (spreadsheets, databases, PowerPoints,
zzzzzsorry what were you saying?) and a games console (made by
boys, played by boys)? It’s seen as nerdy, dull and–dare I say it–male.
