Subtitled True Stories of Women Leaders in Tech, this book
is a compilation of biopics of women who have worked hard,
studied, run homes and raised families, while making it on
the technology front. The first story presents Telle
Whitney, from Salt Lake City, who went to college in
California and did badly in theatre, nearly quitting; until
she took an aptitude test which suggested computers would
suit her. She had no female computer genius role models or
mentors, but her heroine was Sally Ride, astronaut.
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED describes how Telle completed a
PhD at Caltech and went to work in Silicon Valley. With
fellow computer scientist Anita Borg she started the Grace
Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, which held its
first conference in Washington DC in 1994. Being surrounded
by women computer scientists was a reawakening.
The famous glass ceilings existed and still exist in
industry; we learn that half of all women in tech leave the
industry. Many women leave work to raise a family but the
tech industry seems less flexible about part time or shared
jobs. Recently I attended a lecture by Australian professor
Genevieve Bell who worked with Intel as one of a very few
female hires, helping the semiconductor firm develop
products usable for and by women. She became a Vice
President and has now returned to Australia and tech
education.
The second tale by Pam Kostka deals with her time in
startups, and she describes how she was afraid to put her
hand up, assuming everyone else understood matters better
than she did. Learning to ask questions helped her to
progress. Pam quickly rose to be the sole woman at decision
making level over tech people, and only later learned that
she was underpaid compared to male managers. Not only that,
but when she rose to being a director, she learned that a
manager under her was paid $50,000 more than her. She went
on to start her own firm.
Yanbing Li was raised in China with professional parents
and studied in America, then worked in alternately America
and China.
I have to say, reading of these ladies studying at Caltech,
Stanford, Princeton and Harvard, it seems to me that they
had a background that would allow them to choose expensive
colleges, multiple degrees and any path to work they
wanted. Even if students came out with a debt, the famous
college awarding the degree might assure them of work
somewhere.
Most of the ladies had, and needed, a mentor (who shows you
what to do), a sponsor (who recommends you to firms and
suggests jobs to you) and domestic support (a partner who
is supportive whether they work or not). As well as feeling
out of step with peers, the tech women may feel guilt about
spending less time with their children, anxiety about being
a breadwinner in a fluctuating job market and even imposter
syndrome, which means they doubt their capability although
few others do. All this and conscious or unconscious bias
at work, with even outright sexist remarks from some
bosses.
Why keep working? Women make good role models. Without even
knowing it, women in tech make it easier for more women --
their own daughters perhaps -- to get engineering or
computer jobs. A Youtube talk by Jessica McKellar
titled "How the Internet Works" is referenced early in this
book and I watched it, found it well presented and
informative, and I didn't think anything odd of being
lectured in Python and Internet Protocols by a lady. But
maybe a man would find this strange and scary. The more
visible women are, the more women will be accepted in tech.
Therefore I heartily recommend NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED,
compiled by Pratima Rao Gluckman, who studied in Hyderabad,
India, and decided firms were not being staffed by the best
people -- a meritocracy -- but by people with connections or
the right looks. We all use computers, today. If you don't
want to work in tech, maybe your daughter, niece or sister
will. Let's all help.
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