Anne-Marie Imafidon is a woman on a mission. A child prodigy who had received degrees from prestigious universities on both sides of the Atlantic by the time she was 20, she is campaigning to get more women into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). She is not alone, of course. In Britain, as in the United States and elsewhere, there are all sorts of groups dedicated to correcting the gender imbalance in technology. Among them are CodeEd, a Boston-based non-profit that teaches various aspects of computing to girls from under-privileged backgrounds; Lady Geek, a London-based campaign to make technology more appealing and accessible to women; and Code First: Girls, a London initiative launched by the technology start-up program Entrepreneur First to offer free coding courses to female graduates.
The reason for all this activity is that women in any roles in technology, let alone leadership positions, are sufficiently rare to attract comment. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, and Marissa Mayer, a fellow alumna of Google and now chief executive of Yahoo, are exceptions that prove the rule. In the UK, according to the WISE campaign to encourage more women into science careers, females account for just 13 per cent of employees. Even in the United States, home of so many technology companies, women represent only about a fifth of those graduating with computer science degrees. In fields such as the law and medicine women have accounted for about half of recruits for some time now and yet still have trouble attaining leadership positions, so – without significant numbers even starting out – it is hardly surprising that there are not many women leaders in technology.
So, what is to be done? Imafidon is one of many who are convinced that the problem has a lot to do with a lack of role models (Sandberg, Mayer and a few others apart). And not just in real life. With few exceptions, in films and television the “pretty female” is, in the words of technology entrepreneur Alicia Navarro, always in something like PR or journalism or photography. There is evidence – both statistical and anecdotal – that women who know somebody working in science are more likely to enter the field than those who don’t, adds Imafidon.
Another factor is that even girls who decide to take science courses can be discouraged by male attitudes that suggest they are “not as good as the boys”. This is compounded by the recruitment methods used by many companies. Consciously or otherwise, they are targeting would-be recruits who fit the stereotype of the boy gamer. Imafidon explains that she opted for working in technology in an investment bank rather than going into a straight technology company even though she was very interested because “I didn’t want to skateboard to work and have free pizza for lunch every day”.
This certainly resonates with Margo Urey, who – following a career in technology in banking – now works in product development with Mint Digital on the strength of completing a 12-week coding course run by London-based Makers Academy. Having meetings revolving around pizza and beer can be off-putting for women, she says.
Perhaps less widely acknowledged is the fact that the technology industry does not always make it clear how important creativity is. Girls who see themselves as creative might choose arts subjects over computer science, while those interested in science might opt for medicine or veterinary science on the strength that they appear to be more “do-gooding”.
Navarro’s business, Skimlinks.com, which helps websites earn money from affiliate marketing, is, she says, “relatively gender balanced”. And, although she and her colleagues did not set out to achieve that, she believes such a workplace is more creative. Tiffany Lathe, vice-president for human resources and legal at the open cloud company Rackspace, is certain that “a more diverse workforce is better for business”. The Texas-based company has launched the Professional Organization of Women Empowered at Rackspace (POWER), a volunteer group designed to help women “thrive and drive greatness” at the business. Lathe stresses this is not just altruism, but derived from a conviction that the products “will be better if more women are designing them”.
Navarro also makes the point that you do not have to have a relevant degree to work in technology. “There are a huge number of roles in technology that don’t require coding,” she says. However, she encourages all employees to learn the basics because it helps them understand the business better.
Nadia Odunayo is proof that an interest in technology is more important than an academic background in it. A graduate in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University, she was set to go into investment banking until she realised that her heart was not really in it. She and a friend had set up a website dedicated to creative writing for students and had been frustrated that they relied on somebody else for the technical aspects. So she took a short coding course before joining the Makers Academy program, which offers scholarships for women in an effort to help correct the gender imbalance. She has recently started working with Pivotal Labs, a software consultancy, and now feels better able to deal with the technology should she have an idea for another venture. Indeed, the growing numbers of women seeking to set up digital businesses is another reason for technology companies to embrace female recruits.
To be fair, many of the big names in technology are making serious efforts in this area – by sponsoring the various initiatives to encourage girls into science and then recruiting them. But, just as in the law, medicine and other demanding careers, there are problems in retaining them and therefore in having a sufficient cadre from which future leaders can be drawn.
Rackspace’s POWER program, which is being led by Gigi Geoffrion, who has a background in development and is now vice-president of quality engineering for the US business, attempts to deal with this by – in addition to running various networking and educational initiatives as part of its community work – linking female employees with leaders in the business so that boundaries are broken down. It has also adopted “mentor circles”, where Rackspace leaders are paired with small groups of employees to focus on professional development. Parts of the program have proved so successful that they are being adopted in the UK business.
Such activities lend support to the view that “nothing other than women themselves is stopping women” from getting on in this world. And there are some who also question the proliferation of groups targeted at women on the grounds that many women want to be valued for their skills rather than their gender. However, experience in business as a whole – where there is an ongoing battle to increase female representation on corporate boards, for example – indicates that action has to be taken.
Which leads us back to Imafidon and her organisation, Stemettes.org (tagline: “Girls do science too”). This draws on all these sorts of activities to combine campaigning for greater participation for women in science with practical assistance. Through a mixture of exhibitions, panel events and “hackathons”, where participants have the opportunity to create things using technology, the aim is bring science and technology alive in a way that will inspire girls and women to take it up as a career. In the United States alone, there are expected to be 1.4 million vacancies in computer-related jobs by 2020, so there is plenty of incentive for them. Moreover, as Jon Bischke, CEO of the California-based online recruitment company Entelo, says, “technology benefits from being a meritocracy”. New recruitment methods mean that in many positions it is less important than ever before where a candidate comes from, what color they are or what gender. What he regards as the “American Idolization” of business is being brought about by these new channels.
Maybe that’s the sort of role model that is needed to encourage more girls to put themselves forward.