Tech Crunch founder Michael Arrington argued in “Too Few Women in Tech? Stop Blaming Men” that he and other men already do plenty for women: he has a female CEO, two out of four of his senior editors are women, and he begs and pleads for women to speak at his conferences.
Arrington’s counter-point, an article in the Wall Street Journal, is equally insidious. The Journal reports that Mediaite founder Rachel Sklar “co-founded a group called ‘Change the Ratio’ to shine a light on women in entrepreneurial roles, and to address the dearth of women at start-ups” and goes on to report that technology investor Fred Wilson said “the industry needs catalysts to spark a virtuous circle of more successful women-led tech start-ups leading to more women in tech start-ups.”
Wilson pledges to “write about successful women entrepreneurs and prod conference hosts to include women on panels. ‘Little things like that will make a big difference,’” he says.
Arrington, Skylar, Wilson, and the many, many other opinions in an uproar about this are really arguing the same thing: we need more exposure and awareness around women and tech. Their points of differentiation center on how much exposure will actually move the needle and create an acceptable number of women in tech. But how much or how little is irrelevant.
Women don’t need exposure. We need strategy. We need equality.
Interviewing women and inviting women to conferences and reporting on women-founded start-ups and creating women-focused events and so on and so forth might make everyone feel a bit better and be politically correct, but does little to actually support women. These obvious proof points make it easy for Arrington and Wilson and Sklar to say, “Look! I’m doing my part!”
But women are less likely to advance in their careers despite all this “support.” And that’s because they’re not actively sponsored the way men are, the Harvard Business Review reports. “Many women explain how mentoring relationships have helped them understand themselves, their preferred styles of operating, and ways they might need to change as they move up the leadership pipeline.”
Arrington’s ideas are a good example of such encouragement; he argues that women may be too nurturing and risk averse for tech and alludes that changing that behavior is the key to more start-up companies founded by women.
“By contrast, men tell stories about how their bosses and informal mentors have helped them plan their moves and take charge in new roles, in addition to endorsing their authority publicly,” the study says. Men develop a special kind of relationship with other men that goes “beyond giving feedback and advice” and instead has men using their influence to advocate and ensure the success of male friends.
The rules of the old boys club have already been passed down to the young boys and without the key, women have somehow garnered special attention and kid glove treatment. But we need more than well-meaning supporters and intentions.
Just let us play the game on the same field.
To Michael Arrington’s credit, his walk seems to outpace the talk of Fred Wilson and Rachel Sklar. But watching the pendulum swing between who to blame neglects the obvious: equality isn’t about keeping score. That’s what business is for.
See you in the club.
19 replies on “Women Don’t Need Exposure”
It’s also been widely reported with few exceptions that when women hold positions that have been held by men in the past, they are paid at 78% or less of the former salary. Yes, guys, thanks a lot for your support!
@ Linda – True. I think there’s a lot of research about how women are treated differently for a variety of reasons, but we don’t have enough action around it.
I’ve always been concerned that there is an “old boy’s club” but no “old girl’s club”. Not kidding, either. What is it about men that has us “using their influence to advocate and ensure the success of male friends” and why aren’t women doing the same? Or are they and the issue is really just that there are few women of influence, but growing in number, and we just need more time to see change happen?
@ Sean – Good questions. I would love an old girl’s club as well. In my city, there is such a thing, but it is openly exclusive, and is a bit strange in that way. Hopefully as we make more progress, we will hit a tipping point. Until then, we’ll have to keep walking into the wind. Thanks for the comment!
As a woman who has often worked in tech/entrepreneurship I really don’t get why people care about having some sort of ratio. I just think the whole thing is pointless. Meaningless. Who cares if the industry is not 50% women? Or 30% women? It doesn’t affect anyone (man or woman) on an individual level.
If a woman wants to be in these professions, she can be. Trust me. She is welcomed with open arms by all the guys. The thing is, lots of women don’t WANT to be in these industries. They want to do professions that allow them to explore multiple interests at once, which is basically impossible in these industries.
Do we talk about the ratio of women to men on a football team? No. Because most women don’t want to do that either.
If women were not being accepted into these industries strictly because they were women, then yes, let’s fight for equality. But that’s not the issue. The issue is that we think there needs to be some magic number of women in every industry to feel like we’ve won some gender war. And that just hurts everyone.
@ Monica – Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I think the ratio does affect individuals because currently, men are treating women differently than they treat their male colleagues. I am not sure that women don’t want to be in start-up industries or on football teams. I think the expectations just say that we’re not supposed to. I would love to tackle some men on a football field, but that was never the way I was programmed. I do agree with the basic jist that we shouldn’t count numbers. We need to focus on behavior, not a scoreboard. Thanks again – love comments that make me think.
As a woman working in IT, I don’t think that women are welcomed with open arms into IT. Oh, sure, IT guys get excited when a girl joins their field, because that automatically means their dating pool has doubled. But…I personally have had the experience where my male colleagues don’t take me seriously and where I have to work twice as hard as everyone else to get half the credit or respect as my male coworkers do, even when their work is terrible. I’ve also had the misfortune of working in an office where multiple sexual harassments complaints have been ignored and the offender has been promoted. (All of the women but one surprisingly moved on to different jobs or careers. Surprise, surprise.)
I do think women need support in the workplace. But more than that, I think that women and girls need encouragement to go into these fields long before they get to 22 or 23 and start job hunting. By the time a girl has reached college, the chances that she’s been turned off to the idea of going into a tech job because of fear-mongering over how scary math and science are for the ladies are extremely high. I say this as a person who from the age of 12-18 didn’t do anything other than code for fun, and still was appalled by the idea of getting a CS degree in college because I didn’t want to spend that much time doing CS classes.
The “score” is only important insofar as it is revealing of just how little support women receive their entire lives when it comes to doing certain things. I do think the argument that women just don’t WANT to do these things is probably true. However if you don’t bother looking into the deeper meanings why–and I don’t just think it’s that vaginas and computers are incompatible–then I think you’re missing some very crucial pieces of the puzzle that help to explain why women aren’t in these fields.
@ Katie – Thanks so much for the comment – love your blog. It’s always good to hear perspectives of those actually living it day to day. It’s scary that workplaces like yours can still exist and really shows how far we still need to go. I agree that we need to encourage women much earlier. Women who choose to go into tech or found a start-up are in a completely different starting place than men, whose spot on the field is miles ahead.
I think I might be the odd dog out on this one. All the women I’ve ever worked with and for in tech have been smart, independent, ambitious people who competed for everything and shirked — even scoffed at — the idea of belonging to a “women’s support group.” They actively sought out industry groups instead. Several have gone on to either join or found start-ups of their own. Nobody handed them the keys; they just took them.
I suppose when you maybe look at a broader sample of women, this may not hold out to be true, but it may ultimately depend more on the personality of the woman rather than cultural factors. Ot it could be I’ve had the good fortune to be in a very small pond.
There is no question that girls are programmed at an early age to think they are bad at math, computers, video games. But that’s a culture shift that starts at the earliest of ages — back when you hand a girl a barbie doll and her brother a set of legos for Christmas. There is actual research that proves this, and books written.
For the girls who are not intimidated by math and computers at an early age, who do gain the skills necessary during college, the gates are wide open. The things that stop them at that point are the same things that stop men: things like insecurity, over-confidence, lack of fresh ideas, unwillingness to sweat, etc.
This is not a “women need more support” problem, IMHO. It is also not a “give us the key and let us play” problem. There is plenty of support and there are no gatekeepers, but the desire has to come from within the woman. That is the “problem” – which is not actually a problem. Feminism is about women having the choice, that’s all. Not about women fulfilling some ratio in each industry to prove they can play with the boys. We’ve already proven that.
Great discussion.
I can’t speak from experience but I have seen my wife struggle in some of these ways (both in the Y chromosome dominated science and wine industries). And I do think that having women mentors who have moved up in the world is a real key. You’ll see them bee-line right for my wife at a wine symposium.
The wine industry has done very little to promote women. Yet, there are estimates of 15-20% of winemakers out in California being female (http://www.wineinstitute.org/resources/consumerfeaturedstories/article334). I wouldn’t be surprised to see that continue to go up.
Nobody likes to hear that it takes time but I think that’s the case in many of these circumstances. It takes time for norms to be changed, for mentor relationships to evolve and for enough people to move up in a profession to make an impact on these numbers.
This is a rocking post, and I’m glad to see it. Thank you.
@ Rufus – I think it’s great that the women you know are go-getters and the way you describe them gives me inspiration and motivation. Thanks for sharing your experience!
@ Monica – I have never claimed to be a feminist : ) And truth be told, I’m less worried about the choice – we all have a choice and there are always great stories that come of that – but the reality of the situation. I think when you’re part of the “haves” – and you’ve always been part of that group – it’s much harder to see it from the perspective of the “have-nots”
@ Lance – As usual, I think you’re right on – it is going to take time and probably a lot of it for impatient people like myself. It’s so interesting that the wine industry is so similar – I would have never thought that, but it makes sense once I think about it. I hope to meet your wife someday : )
@ Michelle – thanks for being an inspiration!
Personally, I have noticed a significant qualitative difference in the mentoring relationships I have with men vs. women.
Men offer amazing support in career transitions and are great about helping me build my network and scout out career opportunities; they invite me to networking events, actively recommend me for jobs, and throw freelance gigs my way where possible. However, in my case, they haven’t been a stellar resource for day-to-day feedback, advice, and support.
Women mentors, on the other hand, have actively involved themselves in my day-to-day professional dealings. They offer advice, feedback, and coaching to deal with everyday problems and issues stunting my professional growth.
I can see how in some areas, like IT, it might be difficult for women to get the kind of support they need if they limit themselves to just one form of mentorship–just as it is difficult for men to become effective managers and entrepreneurs if they rely strictly on their connections for professional development.
“women don’t need exposure. we need strategy. we need equality.”
I thought you were already not only equal but superior to us men?
“Just let us play the game on the same field.”
Then you’d be even further behind. As you said in the first paragraph, men work A LOT to make sure women get the jobs they do. The World isn’t 100% women’s studies class and thank god for that.
This topic has definitly stirred up some interesting comments, I think that women aren’t encouraged into tech roles, and have in the past experienced a similar reaction to @Katie for the initial interest and then side shifted for promotion for men, although this could be just the case in my situation I believe it is more down to the possible growth of the role – I think as a women you are less likely to be promoted, this could be down to a lot of reasons it doesn’t help when people like Alan Sugar openly admits he won’t hire women around a certain age because he believes they will be on maternity leave. But then in contrast I think there are a lot of successful women (in male dominated careers) who have done it on their own and established themselves in their career and been respected for it.
Men are just more technologically inclined. My wife is working on her PHd and yet she has to constantly ask me how to work her email, facebook account and so on. I just don’t understand, I call her the nutty professor :)
Yeah, I don’t know why there are not more females in the tech industry, however it tends to be a truth across the board. I attended an internet marketing seminar in September and I was shocked at the fact that not only was it more men then women, but it was overwhelmingly more men then women, my best guess is 1 women to every 20 men….There were about 500 folks in attendance.
@ EJ – That’s probably one of the more ridiculous things I’ve heard, especially considering I’m always helping my boyfriend and male boss with technological stuff.