Thank you for your interest in being a participant in this article. This is clearly a topic which has meaning to you. Please share a bit about your background with emphasis on how and why you became interested in a career in a STEM focused field. Also share some of the insight you have gained working in a STEM field as it related to underrepresented groups such as young women.
I was in high school when my father spent several thousand dollars on a home computer that used 5 ¼ floppy disks. It had no hard drive, and the monitor was a small, black and white TV. For some reason, he knew personal computers would be a “thing,” and as he learned BASIC programming, he showed me the ropes. Aside from playing Pong, my favorite exercise was editing the program for ELIZA and making the computer spit back inappropriate comments during our simulated conversations. I had always been very good at math, and it never occurred to me that computers were for boys, not girls, even though I was one of only two girls in my first computer programming course in high school. When it came time to apply for college, I chose computer science because it combined creativity with math, and I wanted to do both. Also, my dad, who had witnessed male friends abandon their wives and children in bitter divorces told me, “Never be dependent on a man. Pick a good major.” Computer science was a choice he and I made together.
College was not like high school. I was overwhelmed and intimidated by the requirements of my major. But unlike a number of my peers, I stuck with it. I really struggled, but I still managed to get a job at Microsoft, because Microsoft hired people based on whether they were smart, not whether they already knew everything. After 4 ½ years as a developer at Microsoft, I moved into a non-coding role. Although my male manager was awesome and supportive, the female dev lead, and the male dev lead who later replaced her, were not. I just couldn’t take it anymore. But I still managed to forge a great career with my writing skills, because communications is typically not an engineering forte. I carved out a niche as an executive communications manager, a role that eventually became standard at Microsoft. And I still support technical executives with their communications today.
“Go Science Girls” quotes the following statistics, “…in the United States, women make up only ¼ of the entire STEM workforce. Contrarily, women dominate men when it comes a STEM degree. Further statistics show that women constitute 15% of the engineering force and 25% of the computer and mathematical sciences. In Australia, women made up 27% of the STEM workforce in 2016. There are various reasons for such a meager constitution of women in STEM. The prime reason is the lack of practical experiences. Women have been quoted saying that they love STEM activities, but the lack of practical exercises discouraged them from building a career in the field.”
These are not new facts and figures but rather ones that have been heard time and again. What do you feel can be done to decrease the implication that women are not well suited to these careers while increasing the number of young women pursuing a career in these fields?
I don’t think there’s an implication that women are not suited to these careers; think the disincentive is a negative perception that things having nothing to do with our competence reduce our chances for success. Sexual harassment, for example.
Two words: Economic Darwinism. Products that incorporate input from diverse people will be more successful. Remember when a tampon came out designed by a female OB-GYN? It was such a novel notion at the time. Today, any company that creates products for women with no women on the team is just being stupid.
Many of us have worked for companies that require, value, and reward critical thinking, problem solving and collaborations. These skills, along with other skills, are key elements to all aspects of living and is especially required in areas such as technology, science, medicine to name a few areas. What are the positive ways to engage underrepresented groups in acquiring these skills?
No offense, but why the assumption that underrepresented groups don’t have these skills or need help developing them? Maybe they have them, but still can’t get ahead for other reasons. Maybe what underrepresented groups need is the opportunity to demonstrate their skills. I always had strong collaborative skills. But at times in my early career, I couldn’t get others to include me in their collaborations. I used to roll my eyes at gatherings where guest speakers with high and mighty titles would dish out advice to women on what they needed to do to get ahead. Maybe the guest speakers were the ones who needed to change their ways to level the playing field for the rest of us.
This may sound petty, but whatever. I ended up leaving my first group (and the field of coding) at Microsoft because the team’s processes were broken but the dev lead wouldn’t support me on fixing them. I went to another group, where my completely awesome new manager supported my efforts to write a programming book for Microsoft Press. I was not the best coder, but I got help from better devs, and my writing was strong enough that my book won a technical writing award. That was very satisfying. And when I sent out an email announcing the book’s publication, I shit you not, the only person who didn’t write back to congratulate me was the dev lead of my old group. I always found that hilarious.
Finding a good mentor in a career is one key element to success. Each of you have been both mentee and mentor. As a mentee what was the most valuable advice or experience you have had thus far in your career? How can underrepresented individuals become adept at seeking mentorship? As successful individuals, how can we ensure we look to be more inclusive in tossing out our ‘mentorship net’?
I think the best career advice I ever got was from a friend who listened to me wail about a colleague who I felt was messing up. He said, “You can criticize, but why don’t you ask how you can help? You may be surprised at how welcome your offer would be.” I don’t know that underrepresented individuals need to become adept at seeking membership. They just need to start by asking, even if the conversation feels awkward at first. I think everyone deserves to be mentored. If I mentor a white male (and I have had several white male mentorees), I set an example for them.
One of the most visible challenges women face today is patriarchy. As a general rule, the way women and men are taught to speak, and act is often very dissimilar. Men are taught to problem solve and speak with authority while women are taught to be demure and defer. This behavior is exhibited in the home, in school and extra-curricular activities as well as the workplace. How can we impact change to eliminate these stereotypical actions? What change do you believe it would have the most impact on ensuring young women step more fully into leadership roles?
I don’t know if I agree with these statements. If you’re an Asian man, you’re also taught to be deferential, particularly to your elders. At some point, we are who we are. When academic and professional environments learn to flex and embrace people of all personality types, they’ll be more successful. I wouldn’t want to work in an environment where everyone “speaks with authority.” But I do want to work in an environment where people listen to even the quietest person, and invite them to engage.
The number of women in CxO roles has grown but very slowly. There is a need to have more females at the table, making decisions and providing a much needed balance. If you had a magic wand and could make three changes to increase these roles, what would you change and why?
I don’t have a magic wand. No one does. But I will say that 30 years ago, I took a small amount of Microsoft stock and donated it to my alma mater to create a summer program for women and URMs struggling in the computer science department. My goal was to give them a safe summer experience where they could strengthen their coding skills. I recently got an update on graduates of the program, which include a Fulbright scholar and engineers at top companies and startups alike. Here’s one of them. There are no fast answers. I made an investment three decades ago and it’s paying off. I say, start now. Even if it feels like the climb is too steep, 30 years from now you’ll be glad you did.
When you think about giving advice or providing your input on issues facing young women entering into STEM field jobs, what would your biggest piece of advice be? As you respond to this question, think about the following: Why would you give this advice? What difference could your advice make in someone’s life? Did you have a similar experience and who helped you through it?
See my response to the question regarding mentoring. My biggest career regret—or “shame.” I should say—is when I got on my high horse because someone wasn’t producing to my quality bar. Getting angry or being arrogant is never helpful. Best to say, “How can I help?” I grew up in an incredibly diverse community, so in my mind this was never about age, country of origin, sex, or race. It was more about my perception of “competence,” which no doubt had biases (everyone’s perceptions do).
When you think about giving advice or providing your input on issues facing young women entering into STEM field jobs, what would your biggest piece of advice be? As you respond to this question, think about the following: Why would you give this advice? What difference could your advice make in someone’s life? Did you have a similar experience and who helped you through it?
I tell young women in engineering what my dad told me before I went to college:
- He said, “Never be dependent on a man.”
- He told me that I had every right to be at Princeton, and that if anyone ever looked down their nose at me, to ask myself, “What are they afraid of?”
- He told me I should never worry about having a job, but that I should worry about how many jobs I’m creating for others.