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 didn’t pursue a career in STEM actually – I initially wanted to work in the travel industry as I loved to explore new cultures and new places. I hated math and science growing up (thought they were boring) but I was good at both mainly because I have a good memory and I’m good with numbers. I didn’t go to college and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I graduated high school. I did have a knack with technology from a young age which, when I look back to all of my jobs before Microsoft, played a part. I was the kid who could program the VCR, I was the person in the office that ended up being responsible for the tech or technology support. I fixed broken computers, figured out how to use and operate our Telex machine and printing presses (for brochures), etc., back in the late 80’s at my first jobs (I know I’m dating myself). I wrote the technical documentation for how to use various computer systems in another job and so on. I went on to do the same thing for my own business which I ran for 9 years and through that journey met a lot of great people, many who worked for Microsoft. Through those connections when I sold my business, I was recommended for a role at Microsoft.
I never thought I would work for a tech company but as soon as I joined Microsoft, I knew it was where I wanted to be. I’ve had an unconventional path, but one thing is consistent, I am a problem solver. When I saw we didn’t have computer manuals to execute various important needs in one of my jobs and it was causing delays and inconsistency and issues, I took the initiative to figure out the system and write it all down. When I saw at Microsoft how technology could solve so many problems for businesses and consumers, I dove in to learn as much as I could as I wanted to be a part of the solution. When I joined Microsoft, it was heavily male dominated – women were very sorely underrepresented in the company and there were no female leaders back then. Though it’s vastly improved, there is still imbalance.
Related to the insights I’ve gained in the STEM field they are as follows;
- Women are often underestimated because they are women
- Women need to speak up and stand up for themselves and not fall into status quo roles just to be polite
- When a woman is strong and determined, she is viewed very differently than a man would be.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been underestimated in the technology industry because I’m a woman. Assumptions have been made repeatedly in engineering meetings that I was the “marketing” person in the room because I’m a woman. I’m often the only female in a large group of men inmeetings and I have regularly been asked to be the “note taker” in those meetings or asked to get coffee for the group. All of which I do not accept and immediately address if this happens. Recently in a call that was all men and myself there was a question asked that I answered, my response was ignored and the question was asked again and a man answered it differently and his answer was acknowledged. The very next day through a chain of emails it was shown that my answer was actually correct. Now the man in question treats me differently in meetings; he listens more closely to what I say. So, ladies stand by your facts, don’t be afraid to speak up and stand up for yourself and never underestimate someone because of their gender or even how they look.
Now it’s a tricky challenge as well as if a woman is passionate about something in any industry frankly she can be viewed as emotional or mean, while a man would be viewed as strong and dominant. That means as a woman you have to work twice as hard to get your point across in certain situations and be taken with the same seriousness. My advice is to always focus on the business outcomes and the facts – its much harder to argue with facts!
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 believe there are a few key reasons including;
- Gender stereotypes – girls are encouraged and marketed to from a young age with dolls, frilly dresses, hair accessories and make up, etc. When I was a kid the toys for girls were all focused on females being a mom; Easy bake oven, Baby-That-a-Way, and so on. It wasn’t encouraged to explore more “masculine” careers such as technology. When I got to high school only “nerds” pursued interests in science and math, girls were supposed to be cheer leaders and drive the pep rallies and focus on more feminine types of activities and were discouraged from being what was deemed a nerd. I was a tomboy throughout my childhood, climbed trees, rode horses, could operate a tractor at a young age, rode a motorcycle from age 5, could change the oil in my car, etc., and was often chastised by my parents and other family members to be more “feminine”.
- Hiring practices – There are more males in leadership roles at tech companies and they are more prone to hire in their own image. This is human nature, not a male trait, most people gravitate towards others that look like themselves, act more like them, have the same hobbies and so on. So males recruit other males when, for example, expanding a startup tech company and they think others like them will ultimately make it easier to get things done day to day.
- Equality in pay – until recently many women were paid less for the same job as men and this was an acceptable practice. Women are often afraid to ask for what they deserve
So what can be done? We have to work to shift the marketing and approach to girls at a young age to ensure they do not feel discouraged to pursue a career in STEM. We also have to regularly challenge the negative stereotypes and ensure we have more role models girls can look to in this field. We need more female mentors for girls so they can see that if you want to, you can don a pair of heels, put on a beautiful dress and still kick ass in the field of tech. I mentor a lot of women as this is one of the ways I want to give back by encouraging girls and women to engage in STEM careers.
If women continue to remain underrepresented in these critical areas their input may not be translated and included into products developed for future use. How may this lack of inclusion impact the future development of products? (This includes retail, medical, sports, the arts etc.)
There is a statistic out there somewhere that 80-90% of all household purchases are either done by or influenced by women. If companies ignore that women are often influential in the decision making related to purchases this can cause a huge issue for adoption and profitability of new products. I honestly have seen a big change in various companies, especially in the last 10-20 years, where there is a big focus on creating products with females in mind.
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?
I believe this all starts at a young age, the younger the better, and getting young kids used to and engaged with various forms of math, science and different forms of technology and making it fun. We started with various forms of math and science with my daughter at a very young age, from doing fun and easy science experiments, to learning math with flash cards and thinking through math problems all the way to starting her on computer programs designed to help teach kids from about the age of 3. She is now 14 and has been surrounded by STEM like learning her entire life. But we are fortunate to have the knowledge and ability to provide this for her. We initially taught her many things, but kids are a sponge and she has surpassed our skill level in many cases, especially related to computer programs. My husband just the other day asked her to design a 3D image for him because she understood the program much better than he did, she did the work in a matter of minutes. (it would have taken us hours).
Our daughter has friends who did not grow up the same way and there is a distinct difference you can see in both problem-solving skills as well as grades and learning in school. I believe we have to equip teachers, parents, schools, libraries, community centers, etc. with the ability to expose children at a young age to science, math and technology to give these kids the chance to even the playing field when they may not have this readily available to them. Getting parents involved when kids are young can make all the difference in the world.
For older kids I believe mentoring programs can also help. I’m part of a girls mentoring program where we visit middle schools and high schools in low income neighborhoods and we talk about our career paths and how girls can get involved.
What is the most positive experience/job you have personally had relating to your knowledge of or engagement with STEM field topics? How did you acquire the skills needed to arrive at a state of accomplishment?
Probably the most rewarding and positive experience I’ve had in STEM was when I took a huge chance and moved from working with developers to build applications on our platform to a job in artificial intelligence in our research department to become a technology evangelist for products I had never used before. The role was a huge leap for me and I had to learn a completely new set of products with no prior experience or knowledge. If you are a curious person you can find a lot of different resources to learn new technologies, products or skills. To acquire the skills I needed, I first looked at the internal trainings and sites inside of my company which were very robust. However, since I was entering into the research organization and some of these products were very new, I also spent a lot of time reading outside publications and visiting tech sites to ramp up. I networked both internally and externally and I also attended as many discussions, meetings and events that could help me up skill.
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’?
The best advice I ever got was from a male mentor: “Don’t let fear hold you back”. I was talking with my mentor about an issue and he asked me what I thought I should do about it. I shared my proposed solution with him and he said “that sounds good, why don’t you do that”.
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?
Well I’m neither demure or quiet ? and I believe it has hindered me various times in my career as a woman as women who speak their mind are often seen as “bitchy” and those who push hard passionately are seen as “emotional” or “combative”. I believe that for more women to move into leadership roles you must be smarter and more strategic about how you behave and how you are perceived. You have to appear that nothing ruffles your feathers, you have to watch the words that you use (no saying “I feel that” or “I believe this”), firmly state the facts and back it up with data. Lastly don’t be afraid to speak up, contribute in meetings, chime in to emails where it makes sense and if you did the work, make sure you get the credit.
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?
There are less females in leadership roles as there are less females in STEM jobs, so mathematically there are less women available for those roles. Rather than wave a magic wand I would start with two key things – one is recruitment of women from a young age and two is you need training/learning paths for women to be groomed for executive roles.
I always think of the example I’ve seen in play many times when someone of one country is speaking to a non-native language speaker and the speaker increases their volume in hopes that translation will instantly occur based on a louder volume on their part. In retrospect, have you found you may have responded oddly to someone who is different than yourself? (age, country of origin, sex, race, etc.) How did your response help/hurt your business needs? What would you do differently today? How does this apply to being more inclusive in our thinking with regard to women as underrepresented individuals?
I have worked with various different cultures for many years and there are two key things I do prior to an engagement – 1) I try to research a bit about their company, their location and any cultural details I can find prior to meeting with them and 2) during the meeting I listen and watch for clues of behavior that may or may not show they feel inclusivity. One great thing today is that we have amazing AI technologies which allow for real time translation during a meeting, or providing closed captions in another language within a presentation/recording of a meeting and this has helped bridge the gap quite a bit. I do not think this is an issue related to women by the way, I think everyone struggles a bit to better understand other cultures and how best to engage with them.