There is a place for women in technology sector

There are not enough women leading tech startups. Here are four actions of what to do about it. But first why, where and why.

Why bother getting more women tech leaders? Besides addressing gender equity issues, everyone stands to benefit — companies and their customers gain from female creativity and leadership, women self-actualize, and our nation is more competitive. The result is a stronger tech engine.

Where do leaders of tech startups come from? One proven path to tech leadership is to start as an engineer, scientist, mathematician or computer scientist. The percentage of female graduates in engineering, science and math is well less than 25 percent and has gone down. The National Center for Women and Information Technology reports, “In 2008 women earned only 18 percent of all Computer Science degrees. Back in 1985, women earned 37 percent of CS degrees.”

Disappointedly, many females who graduate with a technology degree do not stay in the field. The Society of Women Engineers reports that between 7 percent and16 percent of engineers, depending on the discipline, are female.

Why don’t girls pursue tech degrees and careers? That is the question the Girl Scouts Research Institute explored. The Girl Difference: Short-Circuiting the Myth of the Technophobic Girl report concludes:

Adults are not encouraging girls to pursue math, science and technology-related courses.

Girls and women lack mentors in their career pursuits.

Early childhood messages prevail. Boys are expected to learn about machines and how things work. Girls are not. Gender specific social expectations limit the likelihood that girls will be creators and producers of technology.

Girls reject computer games that are violent and find action-gaming boring and repetitious. Girls prefer games that feature simulation, strategy and interaction.

Women would be more attracted to computer science if it were integrated with other subjects and resulted in their ability to do something useful for society.

Believe and act

While the research has shown the same causes over and over again, here’s what to do about it. Believe it is possible to change the situation and take action.

Build the pipeline. Sally Ride, NASA astronaut and founder of the Sally Ride Science Club, said, “The key is to identify girls’ interests at an early age, provide them with the opportunities to learn about math, science and technology, and link them together in a support network to keep them motivated.”

Start early. Help the girls in your life learn to love mathematics and science and to envision themselves pursuing a related career.

Ask your schools to sponsor a MESA (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement) or some similar support program. Colorado MESA is a statewide precollege program that provides after school math- and science-based learning activities to more than 3,600 preK-12 students (in 2009), with more than 78 percent from ethnic and gender groups that are under represented in engineering career fields. It works. 100 percent of MESA seniors graduate from high school and historically, more than 90 percent have enrolled in college with over 80 percent enrolling in a math/science related major, www.cmesa.org.

Identify, promote role models. There are many successful female tech entrepreneurs including longtime veterans as well as up-and-coming leaders:

Margaret “Meg” Hansson has led seven startups including Erth, which has patented technologies to dispose of waste.

Diane Green, co-founder and chief executive of VMware, transformed a 1998 startup into a $2 billion public company leading the virtualization and cloud infrastructure.

Janet Eden Harris, previous CEO of Umbria, a marketing intelligence company sold to J.D. Powers, is now a leader at MarketForce.

Promote the women leading technology startups. Show it has been done.

Improve access to funding. Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported in its June 25 issue in the article Women Entrepreneurs Still Struggle to Get Funded that “Women launch nearly half of all startups, yet they lead only 7 percent of companies backed by venture capital.”

Establish funds that support female entrepreneurs such as the now-closed, Boulder-based Women’s Equity Fund.

Think big. Women entrepreneurs may benefit from a bigger vision. A local research study concluded that female technology entrepreneurs were developing business plans too small to attract traditional tech funding.

Women technology entrepreneurs should set a larger vision, develop business plans and build teams to grow $100 million-plus businesses.

Theresa M. Szczurek is co-founder and chief executive of Radish Systems LLC in Boulder and a serial technology entrepreneur. She is the author of “Pursuit of Passionate Purpose: Success Strategies for a Rewarding Personal and Business Life.”

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