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I asked Paula Bratcher Ratliff what, exactly, she sees as the main challenge facing women in technology. Ratliff, clad in cheery pink, with a light Kentucky drawl, addressed the question like she’s been working on it for a lifetime – which she has.
Ratliff is the president of Women Impact Tech (WIT), an advocacy group dedicated to improving the careers of women technologists. She became president last October and has clearly taken to the job. Based on my day at the recent WIT Conference, held March 16-17 at San Francisco’s Pier 29, she appeared to be everywhere.
She mingled with the nearly 900 female tech professionals who were there for panel discussions and – perhaps most of all – networking. She sometimes stepped onstage to introduce women executives, who spoke on topics like Leadership & Power: Becoming a Master Influencer, The Impact of Unconscious Bias in the Workplace and Professional and Caregiver – How to Do It All. The event was sponsored by Cisco, Netflix, Amazon Web Services, Google, VMware, and other tech companies.
But if the list of gold-plated sponsors and the array of successful women executives suggested a rosy portrait of women in tech, Ratliff offered a more challenging view.
The state of women in tech, she said, “has changed a lot, but there’s so much more to be done.” A mere 25 percent of technical roles are filled by women. Oh, and the so-called Great Resignation? She was eager to dispel what she sees as the myth.
“When you look at the numbers of people that have left the workforce, all we talk about is, ‘Oh, now employees have an opportunity to make a change.’ And yes, that’s a small percentage, but some women were forced into a situation where they had to go back home,” due to challenges around childcare.
“And we’re not recognizing that. We don’t want to have that conversation,” she said. “Because it’s setting women back – it will be 10 years before women are where they were.”
Lunch time: Attendees from Course Hero at the Women Impact Tech conference.
Women and the Tech Job Market
But, I asked Ratliff, the tech market is starved for talent – if you know coding, or the cloud, or data analytics, your in-box is stuffed with job offers – so doesn’t this hot job market work in favor of women?
“But companies aren’t creating a culture of retention,” she said. “To retain a woman who’s balancing responsibilities at home, you have to give her flexibility in the schedule. You still have to have an adult in the house. And look at the tech companies that are coming back strong and aren’t offering remote work – there are a lot of them.”
Furthermore, she said, once a company hires a woman, “they don’t create a culture where their voice is heard at the table. It’s often the case that teams have only one woman on board, and they’re not given a seat at the table when big decisions are made.”
Male-dominated management focuses on colleagues in their own personal network – largely men – and women are only consulted after the fact. “And then they pass by and go, ‘Hey, Sue, we decided to do this. That sound good?’ Of course she’s going to say yes.”
The exhibitor hall was filled with informational tables staffed by leading tech vendors.
Has the Role of Women in Tech Improved?
But, I asked Ratliff, certainly things have improved markedly for women in tech in recent years?
“Not as far as you would think,” she said. “When you start looking at pay equity, you still have a gap.” It’s a shocking truth, but, she pointed out, “the data doesn’t lie.” Pay scales for women in tech are lower than for men. Data collected by Hired reveals that in 2020, men got higher pay than women 59% of the time for the same tech job.
Additionally, pay and promotion are intertwined. As professionals get promoted, “The guys are going to be asking for [higher pay], the girls don’t.”
“We don’t leave as often. If we are getting a fair shake in promoting, we are not going to leave. So they know that they can advance me for less pay because I won’t demand more.”
Exacerbating the problem, there’s a tendency toward imposter syndrome among women. “So you won’t sit there and negotiate like a man and say, ‘I need $15,000 more. I know that this is what the market will demand.’ We sit back and say, ‘Thank you so much. I appreciate the opportunity.’”
Changing the role of women in tech starts at home, Ratliff said. “This is the first conference I’ve been to where I have heard women talk about how they talk to their daughters, and pushing their daughters to take risks versus on the playground, saying, ‘be careful” – and then telling Johnny, ‘climb that tree.’ It matters.”
The importance of an early start brought our interview to the STEM pipeline. The limited percentage of young girls studying science and tech results in a smaller pool of female job candidates. Women earned just 21% of Computer Science bachelor degrees in the US in 2021, even as women earned 57% of all bachelor degrees that year.
Precisely why the STEM pipeline is smaller is a widely researched – and widely debated – topic. Indeed, the very idea of a STEM pipeline is questioned.
In Ratliff’s view, “We don’t try hard enough,” to get girls interested in STEM. “I think that their role models and most of the mothers are still advocating for nurturing toys and being pretty…and they’re not pushing them toward Legos and robotics,” she said. “By the time girls join those [computer] clubs, the boys are further along. So they already come in with that imposter syndrome as young kids.”
“I do think that we’re still behind culturally,” she said. “We’ve got to do better.”
One of the many panel discussions at the Women Impact Tech conference.
Conference Promotes Community, Advancement
The Women Impact Tech conference was geared to promote networking – the schedule included networking breaks to facilitate socializing. It appeared that opportunities for advancement were numerous. In keynotes and panels, executives often announced, “I’m hiring.”
I spoke with a woman who attended the conference specifically to pitch a panelist for a job – she was thrilled to get the executive’s email address; it’s likely that job upgrades were initiated at the event.
The Importance of Allies
The panels and keynotes provided plenty of advice to spark these conversations. At the panel The Importance of Allies, five panelists discussed the crucial benefits of allies in the workplace, and strategies for building these alliances.
“With the exception of one mentor, allies have had the greatest impact on my career,” said Lauren Cutting, Sr. Manager at AWS Professional Services.
Allies “can get you in the door,” added Megan Cartwright, Manager, Data Science and Engineering at Netflix, noting that she’s had managers who later became sponsors. One ally even opened up a new role for her. “She identified that for me, and she used her own political capital to get me there.”
Furthermore, “a strong ally will give you emotional support. They’ll also give you honest feedback,” Cartwright said. As you look for allies, “keep your eyes open and use every opportunity,” she said. “Be strategic.”
Bethany Bongiorno, CEO of Humane, acknowledged that there were moments in her career when she felt intimidated. But there are ways to work around this. “Be a good listener,” she said. “You can read body language to see if it’s someone you’d want to have another conversation with.” To cultivate allies, she’s learned that, “I should meet more people than I think I need to.” And remember: “keep that black book” to gather emails contacts.
In the panel’s Q and A session, a woman in the audience asked, “How do you trust someone, especially if it’s a man?” prompting a hearty laugh from the crowd.
Cartwright answered: “a lot of my mentors have been men.” Cutting added, “Trust is earned. You don’t trust someone to start – they earn it.”
Getting Comfortable with Self-Advocating
The panel Getting Comfortable with Self-Advocating featured five panelists offering techniques to overcome women’s tendency to underplay their value to the business.
“Women are the ones who have self doubt,” said Shilpa Panaganti, Manager, Engineering at Carvana, “We are sometimes are our own enemy.” For support, look to friends and associates, she recommended.
When developing your self-advocacy skills, “I always go back to the why,” said Liz Mayerdirk, CEO of the Pill Club. “What is your conviction, what is your passion? Why are you speaking up?” For her, her kids provide the reason; she’s advocating for her own advancement because ultimately it helps her support them.
And don’t expect self-promotion to be comfortable, said Kimberly Sparling, VP of Product at Saildrone. “I had to keep putting myself out there – putting myself in those positions of discomfort.”
One point the panel echoed often: It’s important to “build the muscle” of self-advocacy. You have to start and then keep at it. “Get them used to hearing you,” Mayerdirk said. “Also, build the muscle of those around you.”
Executives Speak: Issues in the Workplace
The following quotes are from conversations I had with keynote speakers and panelists at the conference; the title of their speech is also listed:
Growth is Not Always Linear
Preethi Narayanan Sr. Director, Roku
“I talk to a lot of girls in high school and middle school, and they don’t understand the impact technology and engineering can make in our lives,” Narayanan said. “So going back to my own example, I started my career in cell phones, mobile technology, and nobody can deny how much that has changed the way we live.”
“I think girls should really look at that and get inspiration, and try things out.” The excitement of engineering, she said, “is about problem solving – finding the right problem and going after that.”
“First, you may feel you don’t really belong there because you may not be like others. How do you own your story in spite of being different, and how do you build your skills and build your career? Trust me, if you do that, there is a really good chance you will be a very successful tech engineer/manager, or whatever you want to be.”
The Power of Cognitive Diversity & How to Tap Into It
Amory Borromeo, Director, Technology Talent, Carvana
The concept of cognitive diversity refers to building a team with diverse backgrounds and attitudes, which produces a staff that tends to be more open-minded and creative.
Cognitive diversity prevents the “group think” that inhibits innovation. Tech companies have struggled with cognitive diversity because they’re typically male dominated.
“As women in the technology space, we are the minority, and so how do you step into a room and not feel like the minority?” Borromeo said.
“I think cognitive diversity enhances women in technology roles because it gives us more freedom to speak up, and the psychological safety that is inherently part of cognitive diversity – the willingness to think about things [differently].”
Cognitive diversity creates “a culture around us that says, Hey, I respect your opinion, I respect that you’re different. And not because I look different or identify with a different gender, but because my experiences are unique.”
“I think cognitive diversity is all about being able to riff and engage with other people and share an idea. And having a voice at the table to do that.”
Are companies embracing cognitive diversity? “I do think there are some [companies] where it’s getting better, there are some instances where it’s great, and there are some instances where we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
The Power of Natural Language – Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
Kate Protacio, Manager, Talent Acquisition, Cohere
“Impostor syndrome is the sense of feeling that you are undeserving of an opportunity, or that you feel like a fraud in whatever you’re doing, even though you have the experience or the education or the chops to really back up what you do,” Protacio said.
“My encouragement for women specifically who deal with impostor syndrome is: believe that you are worth it, believe that whatever you did, whatever you had to persevere, was worth it.” Don’t worry if you lack a degree in the subject, or even if you’ve never earned income doing it. “Experiences that you go through as a person, what you’ve learned along the way, have shaped you to who you are, and you deserve to be where you’re at.”
“Fight for what you think you deserve,” she said, “and don’t be afraid to ask.”
Women in Tech: A Generational Shift
Of all the conversations I had with women at the conference, I found the following interview the most optimistic about the future of women in technology. I spoke with Ambika Gupta, Data Engineer at Twitch, and Jessica Hirsh, Software Development Engineer at Amazon, about what brought them to the conference, and how being a woman has affected their careers in technology.
They spoke candidly about the challenges, though these concerns seemed to be hurdles they’ve surpassed on the way to a successful career. The two of them are working in some of the most highly sought-after – and technically demanding – jobs in the tech industry. A decade or so ago, their jobs would almost certainly have been held by men; now these two young professionals are helping build the groundwork for a generational shift for women in technology.
On the left: Jessica Hirsh, Software Development Engineer at Amazon. On the right: Ambika Gupta, Data Engineer at Twitch.