Revolutionizing the Face of Technology℠

www.ncwit.org

Important Note: this is NOT a talk about men being unfair to women

Women’s Participation in Computing Has Been Declining Since the Early 1990’s

5%

13% 25%

56%74%

Sources: NCWIT Scorecard; Athena Factor, Center for Work-Life Policy, 2008

Women’s Lack of Participation Makes Technical Teams “Less Intelligent”

“There’s little correlation between a group’s

collective intelligence and the IQs of its individual

members. But if a group includes more women, its

collective intelligence rises.”

Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups, Science October 2010, Anita Williams Woolley, Christopher F. Chabris, Alex

Pentland, Nada Hashmi and Thomas W. Malone

It’s Also a Huge (Unnecessary), U.S. Corporate Technical Brain Drain

Sources: Capturing Turnover Costs, Joins, 2000; TalentKeepers, 2010; Athena Factor, 2008

56% leave $150-250K

75% stay in workforce

This Has Serious Consequences for the Success of Tech Industry

"We simply cannot afford to alienate large chunks of the workforce. It is a widely understood truth that the single biggest challenge…is attracting the right people. To literally handicap yourself by 50 percent is insanity.”

-- Dan Shapiro, Google

Why Are Women Leaving Technology? Let’s Start With U.S. Society at Large

Society Is Biased About Gender and Science

Lucy is Biased and Most Likely, You Are Too

It’s Not Our Fault – Our “Schemas” Make Us Think This Way

Schemas are structures that organize our knowledge and assumptions about something and

are used for interpreting and processing information.

“Unconscious” Biases Are Particularly Salient in Organizations Dominated by a Single Group, Like Most Technology Teams

Society

Employees

Organizational Culture

Subtle Dynamics

InstitutionalBarriers

Schemas/Unconscious

Biases

Subtle Dynamics: What Are They?

Ex 1: Stereotype ThreatFear of confirming a negative stereotype

Ex 2: Micro-inequitiesBeing singled out, ignored, or discounted based on race or gender

Example: White male engineering students

score lower when told in advance that Asians

typically score higher on math tests

Source: Aronson, et al., 1999; Steele & Aronson, 1998

Stereotype Threat Research

Stereotype Threat Lowers Performance and Reduces Confidence/Risk-taking of Technical Women Because They May:

Not speak up in meetings

Be reluctant to take leadership positions

Be overly harsh about their own work

Discount their performance

Micro-Inequities Obscure Creativity, Lower Morale/Productivity and Increase Attrition Through:

Slights

Unacknowledged accomplishments

Isolation and lack of networks

Exclusion “Bro-gramming”

Institutional Barriers: What Are They?

HiringSelecting people “like me”

Task AssignmentWomen in “low status” jobs

Performance Appraisal Men – effort, individual & technical skillWomen – luck, strength of team, collaboration, easy assignments

PromotionCriteria modeled implicitly on existing senior male leaders

What Can YOU Do To Stop the Flight of Mid-Career Technical Women?

Personal engagement & sponsorship

Accountability metrics

Supervisor training

Inclusive performance appraisal processes

Inclusive team meetings & culture

Recognition/credit/encouragement

I have three girls on my programming team. One of my girls Amanda who

I have taught for three years made me cry in my car on the way home

(where no one could see me). She solved a recursion problem that I tried

to do for about 4 hours and could not solve. Without me pushing for girls

on the team I would have just thought she was an “A” student. With a

little push she became my brilliant student. I should have pushed her last

year. And for the record it wasn’t an all out boo-hoo cry. It was like a

single tear that a man would do if there was something in his man eye.

In Closing ……..

So Next Year …….. What Will Your Quote Be?

At one of my staff meetings, I asked my direct reports, all of whom are male, to identify our top female technical contributors. Although we had just a few women in technical leadership positions, one really stood out as having potential to advance ….. Active sponsorship …. Top technical assignments ….. Has now become our CTO ….. We leapt for joy!

Questions?www.ncwit.org