Last week, Simplicity 2.0 hosted a Google+ Hangout on the subject of “Women in IT.” Melissa Woo, CIO of University of Oregon; Terri Chung, associate at Hewlett Consulting Partners; and Kimberly Samuelson, director of ECM strategy at Laserfiche, joined Emma Gardner, content strategist at The Economist Group, to talk about the role of women and the value of improving gender diversity. It’s now available online.
Participants revealed a number of over-arching themes on the issue.
1. “Women in IT” isn’t a women-only issue. This is true for several reasons, panelists said. For example, Chung noted that there is the demand for qualified people in the science, engineering, and technology industries, with a projected increase of 70 percent from 2008 to 2018, and 650,000 new jobs by 2018. In addition, women are typically—though not exclusively—more likely to have traits needed in today’s diverse workplaces, such as empathy and openness in communication, Woo said. Women are also more interested in soliciting feedback and image building, Samuelson said.
Second, diverse teams are more likely—in fact, up to 158 percent more likely, Chung pointed out—to identify customer needs. As an example, Samuelson cited the recent “Honestly” campaign from Microsoft, which has received industry criticism for implying that a woman’s primary use of a computer is to plan weddings and entertain the kids. “But when you only have 24.3 percent of women in your organization, that’s how you advertise your product,” she said.
That means men should be included in diversity programs, panelists said, so that men and women get more used to working with each other. “Men need to know what it’s like to be a woman in the company,” Chung remarked. “You need to communicate your needs and how you want to be treated.” “You have to have men at the table,” agreed Woo. “It gives everyone a common experience.” (Incidentally, we were happy to see that more than 20 percent of the Hangout attendees were male. Right on, guys.)
2. Women need sponsorship and mentorship programs—giving as well as receiving. “Mentorship is really important for any group that’s considered to be one of diversity,” Woo said. “I was helped a lot by mentors, including men, and I feel a great need to pay it forward now.” Relationships where women are the mentors can help men develop their traditionally female oriented leadership support characteristics, she said.
Chung emphasized sponsorships over mentorships, saying that sponsorships were more of a two-way street where both parties benefited. And when women are looking for mentors and sponsors, they should look beyond other women, or other executives with similar personality styles to their own. “Women need to realize that a sponsor is not someone you can just look up to, but benefit from,” she said, adding that women need to ask themselves, “What is my niche? How can I bring value to this leader to be attractive to him or her?”
3. Women need to be doing it for themselves. It’s important for women to work with and support each other, panelists said. Chung said that in some organizations she’s worked with, there are various employee resource groups and affinity groups that enable women to meet together, build their networks, have sponsors, and otherwise feel more a part of the company. Examples include Women In Tech from American Express and HP’s 18-month Ascend sponsorship program.
Women also need to be able to see other women as role models, Samuelson said. “Once they get into the workplace, you have a lot of people fall out,” she said. “If you can’t see it, it’s hard to be it. It’s tough to model yourself on something if you can’t see it.” Affinity groups also help women deal with the isolation they may feel in mostly-male organizations, she added.
4. Women don’t have to squelch their femininity. Appearance is one component to executive presence, and women do have to be concerned about how they present themselves, Chung remarked. “It’s superficial, but it’s a very important aspect, especially with a lot of senior leaders who are men.” At the same time, it’s important to be authentic, because otherwise it’s more difficult to speak up and be yourself, she said.
Woo said this was a particular challenge for her because in addition to being female, she’s petite and likes to wear dress suits and high heels, meaning she has had trouble having people taking her seriously. “But I insist on not playing down my femininity,” she says. “There are ways to joke about it and work diversity into the job.”
5. We need to start earlier. All the office diversity programs in the world don’t help with the issue of girls dropping out of math and science at the middle school level. “It’s a pipeline issue,” Samuelson explained, noting that not as many women are studying technology at the university level. Part of it could also be, to a certain extent, women passing their own math anxiety down to their daughters, she said, citing a recent study.
Organizations like Thinkersmith are working on developing K-12 math and science curriculums that are more interesting to kids and that not only make girls more likely to study them, but are more likely to give the traditional geek more social skills and make studying technology more appealing, Woo said. “Programs like that will resocialize people at that age, so it’s not the lone hacker guy in a dark room with his face illuminated by a computer screen,” she said.
This extends to learning about professions, Chung said. “A lot of students don’t understand what IT is or what an engineer does,” she said, adding that when students hear “engineer,” they think “mechanics.” She praised organizations that are sponsoring programs that bring in elementary-school kids to meet engineers and see the sort of work they do. Having more female leaders in companies will also encourage girls and young women to go into those professions, she added.
But the ultimate barometer of success for women in IT is their attitude, Woo said, advising them to “be fearless.” “It’s too easy to sit back and say, ‘There are all these challenges,’ and make yourself into a victim,” she said. “You can’t control the challenges, but you can control how you respond to them.”