I’m taking a break this week from writing about web sites, social media, and the internet in general to come out as a woman.
The late comedian George Carlin spoke once about how the news media sometimes describes a person as “openly” whatever-they-are, and sometimes that the person “happens to be” whatever-they-are. I have been operating my web consultancy as a business that happens to be owned by a woman, and have now come to realize that the world is far more in need of a Woman-Owned Business, uppercase. How did we let this happen?
By the Numbers
In nearly every concentration of leadership, men outnumber women. We have come to accept this current state of affairs, much as we rail against it, but nowhere is this more evident in my world than in the leadership of rapidly developing technology. Looking out across the landscape of the internet, it’s almost painful to see the speed at which it is changing and growing. It’s been, for many years, the wild wild west of growth, where there was little rule of law and an almost unlimited potential to level the playing field.
Except, of course, that we didn’t do that. In fact, because technology appears to be the realm of math geniuses and basement-dwelling computer hardware afficionados, if anything, the internet has magnified the problems that kept women from stepping up in this field historically. We could guess, before, that there were not as many women working in technology, but now we can see it in black and white on the “About Our Company” pages of technology companies everywhere.
According to The Motley Fool, an iconic investing information site that aims to reach a broader audience than just hardcore investment advisors, there are fifteen key tech companies to watch in 2014. These are the companies that look like good investments to the Motley Fool. These are the companies that, according to one of the most popular investment web sites online, would be good bets on which to place your money. I want to add a disclaimer: The Motley Fool has absolutely nothing to do with the hiring decisions of these companies, nor do I have any evidence that the gender composition of these firms was any part of the decision-making process for which firms made the cut. However, here are the breakdowns for the number of women in leadership positions in these firms — the firms which, according to The Motley Fool, will make good investments for you:
- Aereo: No women (Source: http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/people.asp?privcapId=130375459)
- Broadcom: 9% women (Source: http://www.broadcom.com/company/key_executives/)
- Sony: 32% women (Source: http://www.sony.com/SCA/who-we-are/leadershipteam/overview.shtml)
- Invensense: No women (Source: http://www.invensense.com/mems/management.html)
- Snapchat: No women (Source: http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=224055283)
- Apple: 10% women (Source: http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/)
- Netflix: 19% women (Source: http://ir.netflix.com/management.cfm)
- Oculus VR: No women (Source: http://www.oculusvr.com/company/people/)
- Qualcomm: 8% women (Source: http://www.qualcomm.com/about/leadership)
- Line: No women (Source: http://linecorp.com/en/company/)
- Amazon:13% women (Source: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-govmanage)
- Box: 13% women (Source: https://www.box.com/about-us/leadership/)
- Nordic Semiconductor: No women (Source: http://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/About-us/Management)
- Google: 7% women (Source: https://www.google.com/about/company/facts/management/)
- Xiaomi: No women (Source: http://www.mi.com/en/founder)
Those are the companies that are getting more investment attention — and of these fifteen firms, the one with the most women in leadership positions is still only giving 32% of them to women, despite the fact that women comprise more than half the population of this country. Even in “softer” areas of technology innovation, like social media, “influencers” are coming in just slightly higher at 40%.
“What You Can’t See, You Can’t Be” (Marie C. Wilson)
Marie C. Wilson, founder of the sadly-folded White House Project, famously said that “We can’t be what we can’t see,” and when women cannot see themselves represented in technology leadership, it’s no wonder that this issue has seen little improvement. As a nation, we famously tell young girls that they can be whatever they want to be, but when they have never seen a woman discussing code, negotiating a contract, assembling computer hardware, hiring employees, attending and speaking at conferences, or creating a new software product, it’s going to be very difficult for those girls to picture themselves doing the same thing.
As the owner of a web development and consulting firm, I can no longer just “happen to be” a woman. While no business owner wants to be hired based on less than her firm’s ability to do a better job than her competition, it’s also true that many firms are ignored before that’s even on the table just because of the world’s inability to picture a woman in that leadership role. Don’t go out there and hire a bunch of people just because they’re women — but examine your biases, pay attention to your internal screening processes, and think of all the young girls you know who may not know how a woman business owner — or a woman technology professional — looks.
I am openly a woman business-owner. And I’m great. This is how a woman in technology looks.
