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Women In Tech: The Opinion Of A White Male In Silicon Valley

Forbes Technology Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Daniel Levitt

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As a 49-year-old white male, I see signs that we might be, maybe, possibly, hopefully, starting to extract ourselves from the dark ages of a male-centric tech world. But not enough is being done -- not nearly enough.

Having to write about issues of gender inequality in 2018 is staggering when seeing how far we have come in tech. Technology is bringing us flying cars, artificial embryos and DNA fortune-telling, but we are still marginalizing and largely excluding women from equal contribution to the advancement of technology and our future. Software engineer, diversity advocate and Project Include co-founder Tracy Chou initiated a study that showed that only 12% of engineers at 84 tech companies are women! Marginalizing those who are arguably the better 50% in tech doesn’t make any sense at all, so let’s analyze where we are, and what my fellow men and I can do to accelerate change.

A study by HP showed that women only apply for jobs when they are 100% sure that they meet the requirements, but in stark contrast, men confidently apply for jobs even when they believe that they meet just 60% of the requirements. This study, and countless others with similar conclusions, likely catalyzed this tweet by writer Sarah Hagi, encouraging women to carry themselves with the confidence of a mediocre white man. This is very applicable, as the data shows that mediocre men who consistently overestimate their abilities are getting the jobs that women who consistently underestimate their abilities aren’t.

This has been labeled the confidence gap, where, according to an Atlantic article, “underqualified and underprepared men don’t think twice” about applying for a job, whereas overqualified “women still hold back” and don’t apply until “they are perfect. Or practically perfect.” Author and former Harvard fellow Julia Baird suggests that if women “dash a bit of white-man-confidence-cologne on our wrists before heading out to work each morning, we can at least be buoyed by the fact that it is very often uncertainty and not mediocrity that holds people back.”

Do not fear -- not all hope is lost. There are champions in the tech industry who get it and who understand that increasing the representation of women in tech is the secret sauce for greater success. Case in point, Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba, a tech company where 49% of its employees are women, stated that "Part of the 'secret sauce' of our success is because we have so many women colleagues. Women sacrifice more – they love it, they believe in it, they continue to do it."

We are seeing change in many tech companies. One example is the unicorn payroll tech firm Gusto, where Stanford-educated Julia Lee, formerly the only female engineer out of a team of 18, approached CTO Edward Kim in an effort to drive gender equality. Her proactive efforts led to Gusto initiating a six-month initiative where it devoted 100% of its engineering recruitment efforts to hiring women. The result? Today, women account for 51% of the 525 employees at Gusto.

Lee recalled that before joining Gusto, “People often assumed I didn't know the answer to a problem because I was a female engineer.” It's so unfortunate that men in tech still have such primitive viewpoints in the 21st century, but it appears that change is underway.

We need to change, and we need to change fast. Brown professor Banu Ozkazanc-Pan puts it perfectly, “The return on investment in gender equality is clear: Supporting and investing in businesses started by half the world’s population will create thriving societies and sustainable economies.”

The change must be heralded by men, especially those men who believe that they are entitled, who through force of habit and convenience are doing a disservice to us all. As the CEO and co-founder of Bioz, a tech company with a woman founder, I have seen firsthand how women in tech are critically important for success. Progressive men, those who support gender equality, must become a positive force for change and work hard in full alignment with women to eliminate gender inequality from the tech industry.

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