Posted by Women in Technology Statistics, Quotes, Awards, and History
Women’s participation in IT and technology has always been significantly lower than men’s. Employers are doing everything they can to hire more women in the computer industry, yet there appears to be a shortage of women joining the field. This is primarily due to the perception that IT and technology is a male-dominated subject to study in school, and as a result, females are opting for other areas to study.
Men used to be the only ones who could get an education, serve in the military, vote, or work, but that is no longer the case. We are in the twenty-first century, and the world has made significant progress in terms of women’s rights. However, those privileges that were once exclusively granted to men have meant that women have had to catch up in recent years. And we’ve made significant progress in removing gender biases.
While the poll indicated that trends are improving, 38 percent of women mentioned a shortage of females in the computer business as a factor discouraging them from entering the field. Only 19 percent of women working in the field were inspired by female role models, according to the study. This emphasizes the value and necessity of having more female role models in the profession.
Here are the Most Powerful Women in Technology 2024;
- Sheryl Sandberg – Facebook COO
- Susan Wojcicki – YouTube CEO
- Meg Whitman – CEO, Quibi
- Ginni Rometty – IBM CEO
- Angela Ahrendts – Former SVP for retail at Apple
- Safra Catz – Oracle co-CEO
- Ruth Porat – Alphabet CFO and SVP
- Ursula Burns – Executive Chairman, VEON
- Lucy Peng – CEO, Ant Financial Services, Alibaba Group
- Amy Hood – Microsoft CFO and EVP
1. Sheryl Sandberg – Facebook COO
Sandberg, one of the first powerful women in IT, earned a B.A. in economics from Harvard College in 1991, where she also co-founded Women in Economics and Government. In 1993, she enrolled at Harvard Business School to pursue her M.B.A. Sandburg worked in a variety of professions after graduating in 1995, until she met Mark Zuckerberg at a Christmas party in 2007, when he offered her the position of COO at Facebook despite the fact that the company was not looking for a COO at the time. She has remained with the company since then. She is definitely one of the top women in tech.
2. Susan Wojcicki – YouTube CEO
Wojcicki was born and raised on the Stanford University campus, where her father worked as a professor. She moved on to Harvard University to study history and literature before earning a master’s degree in economics from the University of California. In 1999, Wojcicki was hired as Google’s first marketing manager, and later rose to the position of senior vice president of advertising and commerce.
She advocated that Google buy YouTube after heading Google Video. She was in charge of two of Google’s most significant purchases, the $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube and the $3.6 billion purchase of DoubleClick, before becoming the CEO of YouTube in 2014. Susan Wojcicki’s enormous achievement demonstrates how significant women in technology can be for the world’s largest corporations.
3. Meg Whitman – CEO, Quibi
Whithman studied economics and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1979 after studying math and physics at Princeton University and aspiring to be a doctor. Whithman has worked for major corporations such as Procter & Gamble, Bain & Company, The Walt Disney Company, and Hasbro.
She then became CEO of eBay in 1998, when the company had only 30 workers. Whitman went on to join the board of directors of Hewlett-Packard in 2011 and was chosen CEO barely six months later. In 2018, she stepped down as CEO of HP, however she remains on the board of directors. Since April 2018, she has served as the CEO of Quibi. She is definitely one of the most famous women in tech.
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4. Ginni Rometty – IBM CEO
Rometty earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and electrical engineering from Northwestern University in 1979. She started working for General Motors Institute in 1979, and subsequently moved on to IBM as a systems engineer in 1981.
Rometty had a number of positions at IBM, including senior vice president of sales, marketing, and strategy, as well as championing the purchase of the large business consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Her appointment as the company’s future president and CEO was announced in 2011. She went on to become Chairman of IBM in 2012.
5. Angela Ahrendts – Former SVP for retail at Apple
In 2010, Ahrendts graduated from Ball State University with a degree in merchandising and marketing and traveled to New York to work in the fashion industry. She worked with firms like Warnaco, Donna Karan, and Henri Bendel before becoming the CEO of Burberry in 2006. She is definitely one of the top women in tech.
She subsequently went on to become Apple’s senior vice president of retail and online stores in 2014, making her the company’s only female senior executive. Ahrendts left Apple in April of this year.
6. Safra Catz – Oracle co-CEO
Catz went to Harvard Law School as well as the University of Pennsylvania’s Law School. She went on to work with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette as a banker, eventually rising to managing director and senior vice president. Catz joined Oracle in 1999 and was appointed to the company’s board of directors in 2001. During her career with Oracle, she had a variety of positions. In 2009, Fortune named Catz the 12th most powerful woman in business. When Larry Ellison stepped down as CEO of Oracle in 2014, Catz took over as co-CEO.
7. Ruth Porat – Alphabet CFO and SVP
Porat was born in England and came to America when she was a child. She subsequently went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in economics and international relations from Stanford University, followed by a master’s degree in industrial relations from the London School of Economics. She is definitely one of the most famous women in tech.
Porat began her career at Morgan Stanley, where she held positions like Vice Chairman of Investment Banking, Global Head of Financial Institutions, and co-head of Technology Investment Banking. In May 2015, she joined Google & Alphabet as CFO.
8. Ursula Burns – Executive Chairman, VEON
Burns earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from New York University in 1980 and then went on to earn a master’s degree. Burns began his career at Xerox as a summer intern, working in a variety of capacities. Before being chosen CEO in 2010, she worked as an executive assistant, assistant to the chairman, vice president, and senior vice president. Burns is the first woman to succeed another woman as CEO of a Fortune 500 business, and Forbes has her ranked as the world’s 22nd most powerful woman. In 2018, it was reported that Burns would take over as VEON’s Executive Chairman.
9. Lucy Peng – CEO, Ant Financial Services, Alibaba Group
Peng went on to teach at Zhejian Gongshang University (China) after graduating with a degree in business administration, before joining Jack Ma in launching Alibaba in 1999. She began her career at Alibaba heading the HR department before becoming the CEO of Alipay, China’s most successful payment gateway. Peng launched Ant Financial Services in 2014 and became a billionaire the following year. She is definitely one of the top women in tech.
10. Amy Hood – Microsoft CFO and EVP
Hood earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University. Hood began her career with Goldman Sachs, where she worked in investment banking and the capital market group. In 2002, she joined Microsoft as part of the investor relations team. Hood was then named CFO of the firm in 2013. She is now ranked 51st among the world’s 100 most powerful women, according to Forbes.
11. Whitney Wolfe Herd – CEO of Bumble
When Bumble IPOed, Wolfe Herd became the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, but it wasn’t an easy road for her to take. She didn’t have a STEM degree or well-connected parents when she began her tech profession five years ago. She was the VP of marketing at Tinder before joining Bumble, but she resigned after being sexually harassed and discriminated against. Bumble, a dating app with 100 million women who have joined up to make the first move, is now led by her. But that’s not the only thing that distinguishes Bumble from its competitors. The company has taken a strong stand against body shaming and has worked with Texas politicians to make the unsolicited sending of indecent photographs illegal. It also has zero tolerance for misogyny on its platform.
12. Avril Haines – U.S. Director of National Intelligence
Haines, who was just chosen as the nation’s top intelligence official, is the first woman to command the US Intelligence Community in US history. I recently learned that Haines has had an interesting life. She studied judo at a prestigious Japanese university, enjoyed restoring automobiles and planes, and even co-owned an independent bookstore and café with her husband in the 1990s. She’s also held a number of official roles, including deputy chief counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, legal advisor to the National Security Council, and deputy director of the CIA, to name a few. She is definitely one of the top women in tech.
13. Stacy Brown-Philpot – Founding Member at SB Opportunity Fund
Although Google did not begin in Brown-garage, Philpot’s she did spend a decade of her career there. She began her career as a sales director, then relocated to Hyderabad, India, to lead Google’s online sales and operations before departing as a senior director of global consumer operations. She then became the COO of TaskRabbit before being appointed to CEO in 2016, joining a select group of Black women who have run tech startups. Brown-Philpot resigned in June 2020 to take on a new role as an advisor to SoftBank’s Opportunity Fund, which supports firms founded by people of color. She also serves on the boards of HP Inc., Nordstrom, and Black Girls Code.
14. Noushin Shabab – Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky GReAT
Shabab has always enjoyed puzzles and mathematical issues since he was a child, which makes him a natural fit for IT and programming. She has competed in national programming and computer science competitions since she was a child. When she and her twin sister were offered jobs at a business that made antivirus software and other security products, it was one of her first explorations into the world of cybersecurity. In today’s world, Shabab is a member of Kaspersky’s Global Research & Analysis Team (GReAT), an exclusive group of over 40 security professionals.
15. Emilie Choi – COO & President of Coinbase
Emilie Choi joined Coinbase as vice president of corporate and business development in 2018 after 8 years as vice president of corporate development at LinkedIn. She has since been promoted to COO and President of the well-known bitcoin exchange. While she wasn’t always certain of cryptocurrency’s future, she was instrumental in raising $325 million in finance, which helped the business reach a $8 billion valuation in 2018. She is definitely one of the top women in tech.
16. Ellen K. Pao – co-founder & CEO of Project Include
Her parents were both STEM academics, and her mother taught her to code when she was ten years old. Pao is frequently seen these days speaking out against racism and prejudice in the tech industry. But it wasn’t until she filed a lawsuit against her former employer, Kleiner Perkins, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, that she became well-known.
She was passed over for a well-deserved promotion, while males with identical profiles were promoted, according to the story. Despite the fact that the lawsuit was unsuccessful, it did not deter her. Pao eventually went on to become the CEO of Reddit before co-founding Project Include, a non-profit that “uses data and advocacy to advance diversity and inclusion in the tech industry.”
17. Kimberly Bryant – founder and CEO of Black Girls Code
Bryant graduated with a degree in electrical engineering and has worked in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries in a variety of technical leadership roles. Bryant’s decision to leave her corporate employment was prompted by a lack of diversity in the computer business. She went on to start Black Girls CODE, a non-profit dedicated to increasing the number of women of color in technology by exposing girls aged 7 to 17 to computer science and technology.
18. Reshma Saujani – Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code
Saujani began her career as an attorney and activist after graduating from the University of Illinois, Harvard, and Yale. She made history as the first Indian American woman to run for Congress in the United States in 2010. She saw a gender imbalance in computer classrooms throughout the marathon, which inspired her to start Girls Who Code. By 2027, the international non-profit group hopes to close the gender gap in entry-level computing professions by training young females aged 13 to 17.
Saujani indicated in a recent blog post that she is stepping down as CEO of the organization and passing the torch to Dr. Tarika Barrett. She continues to be a strong advocate for young women and girls in the tech community. She is definitely one of the top women in tech.
19. Katie Moussouris – founder and CEO of Luta Security
She was the first girl in her high school to take AP Computer Science, and she learnt to program on a Commodore 64 that her mother had purchased for her when she was in third grade. She helped build the computer system for a new lab that was set to open when she was the system administrator for the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
She subsequently worked as a penetration tester for @stake before moving on to Microsoft, where she oversaw the company’s bug bounty program before becoming HackerOne’s chief policy officer. Moussouris is now the founder and CEO of Luta Security, a company that aims to “enhance vulnerability coordination and overall security.”
The Top 5 Ways to Attract More Women into the Technology Industry
It is not enough to just attract more women into the technology industry. It is also important to make sure that they feel comfortable in the workplace. Here are some ways to attract more women into the technology industry:
1) Establish a strong gender diversity policy that includes language about how people of different genders should be treated with respect and dignity.
2) Make sure you have a diverse team of employees, including both male and female employees.
3) Have an open-door policy for all employees and encourage them to come talk about their ideas, concerns, or questions with you.
4) Make sure your company has a clear mission statement that includes language about equality for all genders and ethnicities.
5) Create a culture where everyone feels welcome and empowered in their role.
Why Do We Still Need Women in Tech?
Women are the most underrepresented group in the tech industry. This is because of several factors, such as lack of female role models, lack of women in leadership positions, and a culture that can be hostile to women.
The underrepresentation of women in tech is a major issue that needs to be addressed. If we don’t change this soon, it will have a significant impact on the future workforce and economy.
How Can Companies Make a Difference?
Companies have a lot of responsibilities and a key one is to make a difference. We live in an era where everyone is doing their best to make the world a better place. However, companies are still struggling with how they can do this.
As the world changes, companies need to change too. They need to adapt and learn new skillsets that will help them become more competitive in the future.
The Women in Tech Gender Gap and How to Fix It
The gender gap in the tech industry is a serious issue, and one that needs to be addressed.
This gender gap is especially prevalent in Silicon Valley where there are only 18% female engineers. The lack of female engineers is due to a variety of factors including unconscious bias, lack of role models, and the perception that being an engineer requires technical skills and experience.
How Women in Tech Are Becoming the Norm
Women in Tech are becoming the norm. The change is gradual, but it has been happening since the 1980s.
In the 1980s, women made up only 2% of computer science and engineering degrees in America. By 2015, that number had grown to 15%.
Women have also been gaining ground in tech companies like Google and Facebook. In 2011, these two companies were ranked as having some of the worst diversity statistics for women in tech – with Google at 16% and Facebook at 17%. Despite this, these numbers have improved significantly over time and now both companies are ranked as having some of the best diversity statistics for women in tech – with Google at 30% and Facebook at 35%.
The increase in female employees is largely due to more women pursuing education beyond high school.
What is the Impact of This Gender Gap on Company Culture?
The gender gap in the workforce is a growing issue, with women making up just over half of the American workforce. This means that there is a significant lack of women in leadership positions.
This gender gap has created an environment where companies are forced to address this issue and by doing so, they are able to create a more inclusive and diverse culture.
This gender gap has created an environment where companies are forced to address this issue and by doing so, they are able to create a more inclusive and diverse culture.
The Path to Equal Representation for Women in Tech
The number of women in tech is growing, but the number of women in leadership roles is still low. This reflects that the industry has a lot of work to do when it comes to equal representation for women.
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