When it comes to tech, women are having their say—and they’re doing it at the White House. On July 31, 2013, the White House hosted a Champions of Change Tech Inclusion Event. In the morning, forty-two leaders, including six men, gathered in an Eisenhower Executive Office conference room. The conference attendees could choose their morning workshop; so many chose to attend the Girls N’ Tech session that it was standing room only. Attendees ranged from high schoolers with Girls Inc.; to nonprofit organizers; to Ruthe Farmer, the director of strategic initiatives of the National Center for Women & Information Technology. Going around the room, each shared their concerns about the lack of girls entering the fields of STEM and how this prompted them to focus on changing this trend. Along the pipeline, they discussed how girls drop out of the field.
Kirsi Kuutti shared how up until age thirteen she wanted to be a ballerina, but then realized this was not the path for her. Lost in high school without ballet, she joined a team to compete in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics competition, an international high school tournament. The first project they built was a soccer-playing robot. At the beginning of the season, one of her friends asked her about her future career goals, saying, “You’re going to stick to marketing, right? You’re not really going to do any other tech stuff?” In response, she told them she was going to be the captain of the team in the future. Today, Kuutti is a student at University of Minnesota Duluth, studying computer science and electrical engineering and just finished a summer internship at NASA. Her story illustrates the attitudes discouraging girls from entering the field and how events like this one at the White House bring together people determined to open up STEM opportunities for women.
We’ve discussed how companies, organizations, and governments have worked to embrace and benefit from their female employees. We also want to recognize the individual actions innovative women have taken in order to be more effective in their personal and professional lives; in other words, explore lessons women can use in the workplace.
Quendrith Johnson explained, “We are in the middle of a revolution in working and living. What stems (pun intended) from this is a need for a ground zero rethink on corporate structures and gender dynamics as they relate to child-rearing and literally every aspect of working.”
How, as individuals, these innovating women reached personal and professional fulfillment required the mastery of communication techniques, the mindset of an entrepreneur, and the collective power of women working together.
Just as huge shoulder pads and boxy women’s suits went out of fashion, so are hyper-masculine communication styles falling out of favor. In fall 2012, John Gerzema and Michael D’Anotonio, authors of The Athena Doctrine: How Women (And the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future, set out to identify what traits make a successful, modern leader. The team interviewed 64,000 people in thirteen countries that, combined, represent about two-thirds of the world’s GDP. They asked half the sample to gender-qualify 125 traits. The other half was asked to rank the non-gender-labeled leadership traits in relation to importance in being a successful leader. Their results found that most of the traits correlated with being a good leader, such as “plans for future,” “expressive,” and “reasonable,” were marked as more feminine competencies. Furthermore, 66 percent of those surveyed agreed that the world would be a better place if men thought more like women.[1]
Gerzema explained his goals for his research: “What I’m trying to do is advocate for women and girls by revealing this portrait of this modern leader and really claiming these traits and values—not as belonging to one gender—and really understanding that we all have these skills, these traits, these ideas, and we can leverage them for competitive advantage.” He added, “I would really urge women to understand that the way they think and the values that they have are incredibly important today to driving innovation in the future.”
According to a Watson Wyatt study, companies that are highly effective communicators had 47 percent higher total returns to shareholders over five years relative to least effective communicator firms.[2] Clearly harnessing the strength of communication is valuable to proving your value within an organization and to effectively create change. The research by Gerzema and his coauthor showed a growing and global regard for leadership traits associated with women. And many of the people we interviewed for Innovating Women assert that there are gender differences in the way people communicate, too.
However, communication styles need to be adapted to the specific work environment. Nikki Barua said, “So many young women come to me seeking mentoring—but they approach me almost apologetically, as if they are sorry about wasting my time. Young men come up to me and pitch me about how driven they are and how mentoring them would be of value to me. Women are much more tentative and cautious while men are far more self-assured and aggressive.” Barua added, “I lead with a distinctly feminine style—coach not boss, openly expressing my vulnerability and empathy, rallying people and tapping into my intuition to go beyond just the data. It’s been a process growing into my own skin and letting my natural style emerge regardless of whether it was considered acceptable.” However, she also mentions how different professional environments require different styles of communication. For example, traditional and formal work environments often require a more masculine approach. Even so, being tough did not mean entirely sacrificing her feminine leadership style.
One key point that came up in our discussion boards was not to be afraid of sexist slurs, including the “B” word. An 1811 dictionary defines “bitch” as “the most offensive appellation that can be given to an English woman,” but it was not until the Gatsby Era that the word was used prominently to criticize women.[3] There are definitely women who undermine others, burn bridges, and sacrifice relationships, but other women use “bitch” as a private rallying cry to prepare them for tough situations and decisions. “If I need to switch it up a little or if I know I have to go into battle that day,” explained Sovita Chander, the cofounder and VP of marketing at Caristix, “here’s what I do to prep. On the way to work, I tell myself, ‘I am one tough bitch.’ I OWN that word. And I play the Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin loudly. That sets me up to get centered and tougher emotionally when I need to be.”
Being called a bitch doesn’t mean you are one. Today, it is still used against many women in power. Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart, Marissa Mayer, Sheryl Sandberg, and Michelle Obama have all been called this name. This proves ‘role model’ and women who have been called ‘bitch’ are not mutually exclusive groups, showing how often the word is used to undermine powerful women.
As described by Allannah Rodrigues-Smith, founder and managing director of Europe at Get P3M: “Social conditioning also means that women who behave differently to the expected norms (e.g. ‘alpha females’) are criticized and labeled in ways that are very different to men—so a dominant man might be described as a ‘strong leader’ while a dominant female may be branded ‘difficult,’ ‘bossy,’ or simply ‘a bitch.’”
Landing on the other side of the spectrum, being too passive can hold women back. Looking at the descriptors used in recommendation letters, a recent Rice University study found that being ‘too nice’ can be detrimental to women’s careers: “Female candidates were described in more communal (social or emotive) terms and male candidates in more agentic (active or assertive) terms.” With personal information and pronouns scrubbed away, the strength of the recommendation letters were rated. The study found that the more communal the focus, the lower the letters ranked in likelihood of a candidate to be hired.[4]
Ellen Pearlman, president at Pearlman Consulting, shares how she dealt with finding a balance between passive and aggressive in her career: “Early on in my career, when I was starting to get some recognition and promotions, a no-nonsense, hard-headed boss looked at me sternly and asked, ‘Do you think you’re too nice?’ I can’t remember now what this was in reference to, but I do recall I had the presence of mind to utter: ‘There’s more than one way to get results.’ I certainly didn’t convince him I was right. And I barely convinced myself. Over the years, my niceness became more of a plus. It became empathy. As a manager, I could always put myself in someone else’s shoes and see their side. Often that was a good thing and gave me the ability to understand people and their motivations. Most employees blossomed with this style of management. And I began to feel more confident about blending my nice side with my strong side.” She found a balance in which she could empower her employees, but maintain respect and authority.
Our ambassadors also provided advice on how to incorporate innovation and an entrepreneurial mindset into performing at the office and thinking about their careers. A lot of this focused on how to view competition, set goals, trust in one’s self and instinct, and forever be a student. Many mentioned that the traditional image of masculine competition pits one person or team against another. They suggested that individuals should focus on competing against themselves to create new milestones and reach new heights in their own lives. Yes, two people within an organization may be gunning for the same job, but in the end, their career goals are to achieve what best fits theirs skills and their abilities. “In STEM in particular, emotions are considered bad. ‘Don’t get emotionally attached to your work.’ I consider that the male influence. The only emotion male managers deploy is competition. Female managers harness a wider range of emotions,” said Ana Redmond, CEO and software developer at Infinut.com. Adding value is about the bigger picture.
[1] John Gerzema and Michael D’Antonio, “The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future,” (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2013).
[2] “Capitalizing on Effective Communication: How Courage, Innovation and Discipline Drive Business Results in Challenging Times,” Watson Wyatt Worldwide, 2009/2010.
[3] Zoë Triska, “You Say 'Bitch' Like It's A Bad Thing: Examining the Implications of the Notorious Word,” The Huffington Post, January 23, 2013.
[4] Michelle R. Hebl, Juan M. Madera, and Randi C. Martin. “Gender and Letters of Recommendation for Academia: Agentic and Communal Differences.” Journal of Applied Psychology. 2009, Vol. 94, No. 6, 1591–1599.