Tech Her

Girls and Boys Score Equally in Math

2008-07-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

You aren't going to believe this.... but girls perform as well as boys in math!!!

Researchers from UC Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin-Madison published a study in Science magazine, where they looked at the performance of 7 million students from 10 states, using data from the annual math test required by the No Child Left Behind legislation. Although you need login access for the science article, two other articles in the San Francisco Chronicle and US News and World Report talk about the results. The study, funded by the National Science Foundation, looks at students from second through the 11th grade.

Now, for the drum roll - girls perform as well as boys on standardized math tests in every grade, from second through 11th grades, though there is evidence of slightly greater variability in test scores for boys. I'm sure that none of you are surprised, however the study is important, because it provides data that supports what educators all know. So now we know that girls have the capacity to be great at math and science.

Unfortunately there is still evidence that girls are not choosing to study math and science because it isn't cool. The next really important step is to help parents and career counselors understand the remarkable breadth of careers that are available for girls who have a background in math and science. Jobs include not only being a great scientist or a bio-tech entrepreneur, but also careers in policy, law, business and sales. All of these careers are enhanced by a background in math and science.

Silicon Valley Women CEOs

2008-07-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

Some of the recent buzz in Silicon Valley is that with the firing of Diane Greene from VMWare, there is a complete absence of women CEOs of large high tech companies in Silicon Valley. Meg Whitman stepped down earlier this year, and Carol Bartz left Autodesk a couple of years ago. Of course the most high profile exit in recent years was Carly Fiorina. The issue is that for some time we were seeing the number of high profile women CEO's increasing, and that isn't true right now.

Although I have met all of these women, I had the chance to spend time recently with Diane Greene, because she was the keynote at our 2007 Women of Vision event. I admire her as an entrepreneur, as a leader, and for simply being smart. I left every conversation with new ways to look at my job and the world.

There was an article about Diane Greene's exit in the Mercury News this morning talking about how she was fired. To quote from the article

Silicon Valley saw two prominent CEOs get the boot this month. One was a man, who was gently eased into the boardroom in typical valley fashion. The other was a woman, whose firing was unusually swift and harsh.
I'm speaking of Diane Greene, founder and former chief executive of VMware, and Hector Ruiz, former CEO and now executive chairman of AMD. For me, the stark contrast in their departures raises the issue of what role gender played in the way Greene was unceremoniously dumped.
If she were a man, would she have gotten a softer landing? Would she have been treated more like Ruiz, whose sins were far more egregious? You can judge for yourself, but I think the answer is "Yes."

The recent event with Diane occurred at a time when I was just finishing Carly Fiorina's book. Regardless of what you think of Carly's leadership of HP, what was most striking in her book was the description of the way in which she was let go. It bears a striking similarity to the article's description of Diane and VMWare.

I believe passionately that if the world of technology features 50% women leaders, including CEOs, that being fired comes with the territory. But there is no question in my mind that these two women were treated differently, and while we are making progress against the ultimate glass ceiling of leadership, we still have a long ways to go.

Women's Venture Fund and the Highest Leaf Award

2008-07-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

Last week I was honored to receive the Highest Leaf award given out by the Women's Venture Fund, an organization that supports Women Entrepreneurs, and whose goals are very synergistic with the work of the Anita Borg Institute.

The Highest Leaf awards honor women who take risks, demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit or vision in managing uncertainty, and their continued commitment to mentoring others.

What was particularly inspiring for me was to meet the two other women who received the award. Jennifer Fortner was from Goldman Sachs, and Phyllis Tabachnick was from Bear Stearn's (the fourth winner was unable to attend). Both of these women are very successful in their chosen career. But both of them talked about bringing their whole selves to their job - they talked about their family, and how important their family was to their life. Both are very involved with their community. Many successful women bring these three parts of their life together - work, family, community.

Pictures from the award, and with the President of Women's Venture Fund, Maria Otero.

the CRA Snowbird Conference

2008-07-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

I have spent the last three days at the beautiful location of Snowbird, Utah for the Computing Research Association (CRA) bi-annual meeting. This meeting brings together the chairs of Computing departments throughout North America, as well as leaders in the Computing Discipline. The theme for this meeting is Computer Science is the transformative science of our age. Its principals are increasingly fundamental to many disciplines. We provide the engine and many of the ideas that drive innovation and discovery in virtually all disciplines.

Some of the ideas that I heard at this conference include:

The newly released CRA Taulbee survey is out, and has lots of interesting data. I was particularly surprised that industry is hiring more of the Computer Science PhD students than academia by a significant amount

Jeanette Wing, who is the new head of CISE (the Computing Directorate) at NSF, the primary funding agency for academic institutions in the Computing discipline talked about her view of what is important in Computing. She talked about the three primary drivers of computing, and their interrelationship:

Science <--> Society <--> Technology <--> Science

She asked the question: Can we harness capabilities to make humans and computers work effectively in harmony, solving problems that neither can solve alone? At ABI we passionately believe that technology that benefits society is important and ultimately attracts more women, and so I loved to hear her perspective.

She also talked about Green IT and asked since IT is part of the problem, it is important that IT is part of the solution? I would love to think it is so, and it is great to hear this encouragement, but I must admit I wonder how pervasive this will become.

Another interesting topic at the conference was on wikinomics and communities. Communities can be characterized as groups of people where people actively contribute, but where these members self select as to how to contribute. The four principles of these emerging communities are openness, sharing, peer access and acting globally. It became clear through out the discussion however that although there is a great deal of aspiration for these communities to form around research, the promise has not yet been realized.

Many of our communities, both Systers, and our new Facebook and LinkedIn communities are global, but we are still learning the important organizing and mobilizing principals so it is useful to hear what others are finding.

Academic Institutions - Changing the Culture of Technology

2008-07-14T09:40:00.000-07:00

Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is an organization committed to change. Last week their Board of Trustees met in California, with the intent of informing their board of trustees and academic leadership on a number of critical topics. As part of their overall multi day agenda, the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology met with them Friday morning.

Forty people from RIT met with myself, Alan Fisher, the co-chair of our advisory board, who is well known for his work on Unlocking the Clubhouse and most of ABI's senior staff.

I believe passionately that in order to change the culture of technology, it is important to actively engage with diverse organizational participants including students, faculty, as well as the institutional leadership. We were pleased to take the time to meet, to provide information from both research and practice that we understand because of our work.

RIT has been an active participant in many of our programs, they bring students to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, and often sponsor the conference. It impresses me that the institutional leadership is reaching out to ABI to understand better what works, and understand the research.

We talked about all of the issues that academic institutions are grappling with - how to attract female students as undergraduates and graduates, how to retain students once they show interest in engineering and computer science disciplines, and topics such as how important are female faculty role models to keeping students (it is important).

There is nothing more powerful than participating in a productive conversation like the one that RIT engaged with us on Friday, knowing that there will be follow through. It makes me optimistic about the future.

Fourth of July and Work/Life Balance

2008-07-04T17:32:00.000-07:00

At the Anita Borg Institute we have the 4th of July off, like many US organizations, and I was looking forward to a 4 day weekend off, a rare treat for me (I took Monday the 7th off too). But we found out that we needed to move next week, and since I am traveling last week and next week, I spent today packing up boxes at the office.

I consistently make time for the areas of my life that are most important to me. - work, time with my husband, running, and time with friends, as well as spending time at our new house in the mountains.

But today is an example of how the best laid plans... HP, who so graciously provides us with office space, is moving a lot of people As a small non-profit in 13 of their cubicle, we are one small dot on their massive move plan, and so we have little influence over their schedule. Thus my packing today so we can move next week.

I passionately believe in taking time off regularly, but sometimes it doesn't work out. But it is important to make it a priority.

TechLeaders, Atlanta, GA, Day 2

2008-07-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

I am at Day Two of the TechLeaders workshop in Atlanta, GA, and it is going really extremely well. Denise Brosseau, who is today's facilitator, built on the VRE work developed by Frank Greene at the workshop yesterday. We all used the work book provided by Denise that allowed participants to develop a one page personal plan, a great tool for focusing on how to execute. Several of the academic participants took me aside and told me how excited they were because they could see how the plan could help them with work that was already in process at their university.

I always find that a real key for me at the leadership workshops is the chance to hear the speaker's stories. and today's speakers were extraordinary. Although the speakers very different in profession, what I was struck by was the similarities. Both talked about following their own internal vision of success, and did not always follow the common wisdom. Both talked about the importance of family, and discussed how they ensured that their children were part of their professional lives.

Duy Loan Le who is a senior fellow at TI held the audience captive as she articulated her own personal philosophy. She talked about her three C's of leadership

Confidence to challenge those who don't agree
Courage to make tough decisions
Compassion to serve others

One of the her most inspirational discussions is about her triangle of life, where professional life, family and community service are the three sides of a triangle of her live, and each is extremely important.

Leah Jamieson is the Dean of Engineering at Purdue, and the past president of IEEE. She completely engaged the audience by her discussion of how she brought the three aspects of her life - research, education, and service - together in ways that has obviously worked.

Leah believes that her values are at her core

Balance - career, research, education, and service
Change - envision a different future, that builds on today
Big Picture
Excellence - inspired by anything that is done well
Community - personal community

This participants of this TechLeaders are a group of accomplished women, and to hear stories of their journey is humbling to me. I have learned so much from these smart women as they have grappled with strategies, objectives, vision and action plans present on the one page business plan. I can't wait to hear their results.

ABI Senior TechLeaders at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA

2008-06-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

Every year we hold an invitation only Techleaders for Senior Women. We held this year's TechLeaders at Georgia Tech, one of the great centers of learning for Engineering and Computing.

The focus of this workshop is on strategic leadership. We have two great facilitators Dr. Frank Greene and Denise Brosseau, and the attendess are an extraordinary group of academic and industry leaders. For whatever reason, this particular workshop includes more academic leaders than industry - perhaps because it was held at Georgia Tech. In any case they are a wonderfully rich and diverse group of attendees, who can be seen on the website.

Today, Frank walked us through his VRE Leadership framework - which stands for Vision, Relationships and Execution The VRE Leadership model recognize that we use three intelligence centers - thinking, emotional and instinctive. In his model, Vision (V)is done through the thinking intelligence, Relationships (R) are developed through your emotional intelligence, and Execution (E) is accomplished through your instinctive intelligence. Any successful strategic leadership plan addresses these three areas.

There is a real value for me in the framework for thinking about successful leadership. WHat is most exciting is to ee the projects that the attendees came up with (we worked in groups)! ONe group wants to build a better future for middleschool girls, another envisions a line of technical women toys and dolls for young folks. The team I was on created a strategic plan a state of the art video replicated at Starbucks.

I can't wait to see what is next.

IT Business Advocasy Roundtable in Washington DC

2008-06-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I was in Washington DC attending a roundtable hosted by the National Center for Women and IT (NCWIT), ACM, and CRA. ABI was an affiliate sponsor. The attendees, which numbered around 60 was a mix of corporate government affairs people and DC non-profits leaders who work in and around Science Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) government policy. The topics the speakers covered included:

IT and computing workforce needs when looking at the overall STEM workforce issue
Research funding for Computing, the shortfall, and the impact on the scientific workforce
Computing education, needed improvements for both K-12, and college

The roundtable was held at the Woodrow Wilson International Center fro Scholars, and featured an active dialog between the roundtable participants.

What I was reminded by these folks was the crisis that so many of these companies are facing as they look at their workforce needs over the next 20 years, and see the lack of people graduating, and I believe that active inclusion of women could change fix their issue. Most of these corporations are multi-national, most are building centers in different countries, but they still have powerful workforce needs in the US.

As we look to change the policy that supports the workforce development, one participant observed "if you always do what you always did, you Will always get what you always got".

Many of these participants are actively engaged in changing research funding, which has dropped to an alarming low level to support the innovation of today. But the national policy for workforce needs for women is less of a priority to date, and the dramatic drop in graduation for CS, while jobs increase is not typically on the government affairs agenda. This round table looked to plant the seeds of change, to inform the attendees, and to look for ways to work together.

I learned a lot from listening to the folks in the room. I see what a long and arduous path it is to make a change on national policy, but I also see the importance.

ACM Awards

2008-06-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

Saturday night I attended the ACM awards banquet at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, CA . The ACM awards banquet is an extravagant evening hosted by ACM where the best and the brightest in the Computing community come together to acknowledge many of the thought leaders from the community. It is always rewarding to see friends and colleagues at the event. This year it was especially thrilling to congratulate the new ACM president Wendy Hall who is a strong support of both ABI and the topic of increasing women in technology worldwide. Although many of the winners were inspiring, I particularly enjoyed meeting some of the women. Daphne Koller from Stanford won the inaugural Infosys Foundation award in the computing sciences, which comes with a $150K prize. If you aren't familiar with Daphne’s work, you should be, and you will be in the near future. Shafi Goldwasser from MIT won the ACM-W Athena lecturer award, I've met Shafi several times, in fact she was scheduled to speak at the first Grace Hopper conference in 1994, but was unable to travel at the last moment because she was pregnant, one of those issues that so many women grapple with as they bring together their life and their career together. Yan Liu from IBM received the doctoral dissertation award honorable mention. I was pleased to hear that two of the Student Research Competition winners came in through the Grace Hopper Conference SRC competition. One of the great disappointments however was that only 1 of the 38 new ACM fellows were women, Monica Lam from Stanford. There is definitely some work to do there!!

I found it personally satisfying to meet several of the winners Saturday night, and to meet people like Daphne who I hadn't met before. However, I look forward to the day when so many of the winners at events like these are women (half), that there is no reason to comment or note the note the lack of women. I am confident that it will come.

the Athena Factor: Women leaving technology careers

2008-06-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

An important study was just released that looked squarely at women working in Science, Technology and Engineering, and when they leave.

The name of the 109 page study is The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain
in Science, Engineering, and Technology. The study was supported by the Center for Work-Life Policy and is available from the Harvard Business Review. A short description of the results is available in a Computer World article.

You may be surprised to hear that women are present and excelling at the entry level of Science and Technology careers, for example, between ages 25 and 30, 41% of the Science and Technology talent are women.

However, if you look further down the career path, 52% of the talent leaves. At a critical time between 35 and 40, women are leaving, not only the job, but the sector and science and technology fields altogether.

For me this is not a surprise. I think that many people and companies believe that the lack of participation of the female workforce is a pipeline issue, however for those who have been looking at their workforce over time; they see that a strong early pipeline of women consistently dissipates further in the technical career paths. For example, I ran into a top notch researcher the other day, who loved the work she did. But she quit a few years ago because the company was in transition., and she is currently staying home with her children. But what is more disheartening is she doesn't miss the corporate politics and doesn't plan to return to the field. Most of the women I know love the technology piece, but get tired of fighting up stream against the culture.

What this study found was that the women are leaving for a number of different reasons including lack of support in the company culture; in fact they often experienced the culture as Macho. Other reasons they leave include feeling isolated, lack of role models and lack of career navigation tools.

The study includes many important findings, and also includes well articulated examples of programs that address these issues. The good news is that there are well understood ways to change the culture and provide resources for these women, once the organization recognizes it wants to change. For example, I know of one company that has overhauled its technical fellow track (okay, yes, even the name isn't great), and by listening to their employees, and reevaluating the criteria, the company has increased the number of women who are successfully navigating the technical career path while still holding the technical bar high, and yes they even have a few female fellows.

For me it is helpful to have a thoughtful and well researched piece of work that I can recommend to our community that describes what I see all the time. The technical population that can create the technology of tomorrow is available today if we find a way for the women to stay.

National Center for Women and IT

2008-06-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

On Friday my friends and colleagues Lucy Sanders and Bobby Schnabel visited me in Palo Alto. The three of us co-founded the NCWIT Center for Women and IT (NCWIT) five years ago.

NCWIT is a coalition of more than 100 corporations, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profits working to increase women's participation in information technology (IT). NCWIT holds bi-annual meetings where representatives of these organizations come together to both learn from experts and from each other.

How did I end up co-founding one non-profit organization while leading another? Interesting question. As you can see from the mission of NCWIT, it is very synergistic with the mission of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. NCWIT provides the infrastructure and meetings that allow us to come together with the organizations we were already working with , thus multiplying our effectiveness in working together. Finally NCWIT's headquarters is at the University of Colorado. By being part of an academic center, NCWIT has opportunities for funding and other benefits that a separate non-profit can find more challenging.

Lucy, Bobby and I always find ways and opportunities to work together for the benefit of the sector. There is no question that together we are stronger and can make a difference more successfully.

Grace Hopper Celebration Student Scholarships

2008-06-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

Grace Hopper student scholarship applications are due on June 15th. It is an exciting time because of the impact we know these scholarships and the conference have on the scholarship recipients. The National Science Foundation has generously provided support for these scholarships since the first Grace Hopper Celebration in 1994 because they see that attendance at Grace Hopper can be transformational for students. There are corporations that have joined NSF to provide additional scholarships, but the number of applicants has sky rocketed - last year it was 900, and we were able to provide around 280, which is still quite a lot.

When I see the deadline approaching, what I picture are the students, sometimes there seems like there are many of them at the conference, excited, engaged and having fun. I think of the student from Brown last year who stopped me in the hallway to tell me how the conference had changed her life, that she had all of these ideas about a women's group that she wanted to launch at Brown. I think of the increasing number of undergraduate students who decide to go to graduate school after attending.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, for now it is the scholarship deadline. An exciting time.

Words of Wisdom from Leadership Workshop

2008-06-09T20:13:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I attended another session with the Center for Excellence in Nonprofits, as part of a six month program called their Leaders Institute, where I have the chance to meet regularly and speak candidly with other non-profit leaders. Much as we find with our TechLeaders program, there is nothing more powerful than having the chance to speak with people who are working in a similar job to what I do.

The group had a chance to hear Chuck Geschke, the founder of Adobe systems, talk about his perspective on leadership.

He reminded us how important it is to work with self starters, who are smart and challenge you, even if they are not experienced. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing a smart and capable person come into their own, and take on new challenges. He talked about the importance of organizational values.

Chuck also talked about the difference between leadership and management., and commented that leadership comes first, before management, but also reminded us of important principles such as

manage by walking around - today that may be virtual, but it is important to regularly talk to employees, and in our case, the many volunteers who work with us
communicate regularly
encourage all to work with their peers as well as with their team

It was a great reminder of common sense ideas that I use every day.

Anne Mulcahy CEO of the year.

2008-06-05T21:27:00.000-07:00

Successful women role models are an important part of changing the culture of technology. One of the great women CEO today is Anne Mulcahy from Xerox. She is an inspiration to me, and to our community. I was very pleased to hear that Anne Mulcahy has been recognized as the first woman CEO to receive chief executive magazine's 'CEO of the Year' award.

Her contributions to the company she has led since 2001 are legendary. Xerox has made significant and successful changes under her leadership.

What is less well known is that Xerox includes a number of powerful and successful women, including Ursula Burns, Xerox's President, and Sophie Vandebroek, Xerox's CTO. I'm sure there are many capable male executives at Xerox, but it is still very unusual and noteworthy to find three distinguished and capable women leading a technology company.

Someday, it will not be unusual to find a number of women at the top, but today it still is. Congratulation to Anne Mulcahy on this recognition, and congratulations to Xerox for developing a culture where women thrive.

Grace Hopper Celebration 2008 Program Available

2008-06-04T08:43:00.000-07:00

Around this time of year at ABI, there is a lot of excitement as the program for the Grace Hopper Celebration is finalized. The program is now available on line. We were very pleased by the record number of submission. For example, in the panels and workshops area, we had 147 proposals of which 56 were accepted for an acceptance rate of 38%. What makes the program so exciting is the breadth of topics. This years theme is we build a better world, and not surprisingly, there are an increased number of international topics about building a better world, as well as topics about changing the culture within your organization - for students, for faculty and for industry participants.

What has worked really well the last couple of years are the advisory committees including the industry and academic committees that meet prior to the submission date and brainstorm on topics of interest. These committees then create submissions that are reviewed as part of the standard process, but the participation of the committees has resulted in an increased breadth and depth of topics for the target audiences. This year we expanded our technical topics offerings to include both hardware and web 2.0 social networking, and to ensure that there were quality submission in this area, we had two new advisory committees focused on these areas. You can see their impact on the program.

Registration is now open. For many, this years Grace Hopper Celebration will be a life changing experience. I hope to see you.

Catalyst new Report on Women in Technology

2008-05-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

Catalyst is a important and knowledgeable organization focused on women's career advancement in business. Their census data on women's participation on boards and as officers is informative and useful, and I often cite it.

Catalyst has a new report out on Women in Technology: Maximizing Talent, Minimizing Barriers, and I found several of their findings important.

One of their finding is that technical women are less satisfied with their supervisory relationship than non-technical women and all men (technical and non-technical).

This finding is consistent with anecdotal stories that I hear from technical women who leave companies because they do not like their supervisor, although they like company. It also reminded me of one of my first bosses who wanted so hard to be supportive, but was so uncomfortable providing me with candid feedback, and was always more comfortable talking to my male colleagues.

The study also found that women often cited lack of role models as a barrier to their advancement, an area that is important to us, and I am proud of the number of role models that we showcase.

Yes we've made pr ogres, but we still have a ways to go.

Women of Vision Revisited

2008-05-28T20:41:00.000-07:00

It has been two weeks since our Women of Vision event, and the photographs and feedback are in. I am pleased that over 99% percent of attendees rated the experience good or excellence, very high even for our events. But of course the comments often what tell more of the story. Here are a few of the comments from attendees

Generally when there is a meeting of people in technology, the audience is predominately male - I felt chills being present with so many women who have such positive impact on technological advances.

The highlight was meeting other women in technology.

The highlight for me was being in a large room full of technical women. You could feel the energy.

It was a pleasure to have so many students attend, we were able to invite over 100 students, and many other organizations included students at their table. For example, here are several students with one of the award winners - Justine Cassell.

It was very satisfying to impact that this event had on all of the attendees. To the hard working Anita Borg Institute staff, a job well done.

Ivan Sutherland's 70th Birthday

2008-05-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a party at the Computer History Museum for Ivan Sutherland. Ivan is considered by many to be the father of Computer Graphics, and was my master's thesis advisor at Caltech.

It was an evening of memories for me as I remembered my early graduate student days. I was at Caltech to work with Ivan because a professor at the University of Utah Richard Riesenfeld believed in me, and introduced me to Ivan. As a 22 year old undergraduate student with no clear idea of what a Computer Science degree meant, or what my options were, the interest and advice of a professor changed my life, something I am often reminded of by the students who attend the Hopper conference and learn from others what is possible.

I arrived at Caltech and joined Ivan and a small research group working on a hierarchical design rule checker, a hot topic in the VLSI field at the time. Ivan challenged my thinking and pushed me, and it was one of the most rewarding years of my life, resulting in two conference papers, no small feat for a first year student.

Ivan left Caltech after my first year, and when I protested, he politely reminded me that he had not made a commitment to be my PhD advisor. In the long run, it worked out, I worked with Carver Mead, an extraordinary man who I consider a friend and mentor to this day, who was also at the party tonight.

Both Ivan and Carver had characteristics of many great mentors - they challenged me, and pushed me hard. But they really believed in me, and let me know it.

Tonight it was wonderful to hear some of the true greats in Computer Science such as Alan Kay, John Warnock, and Bob Sproull talk about the brilliance of Ivan, and it is true. But what made him great to me is his role as teacher and mentor. Others felt the same, as heard in the stories of his many students, who spoke of his impact on them.

Ah yes, I did notice they were almost exclusively men talking, and I am committed to changing the presence of women. But mentoring is important to me, and to the many great leaders I know. Tonight, it was important to reflect on the great mentors I have had in my life. I owe them a great deal, and remember that it is important to give back.

Next Generation Technical Leaders

2008-05-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

The next two days is our TechLeaders program on Power and Influence held at Amazon in Seattle, WA, with seventy women from 11 companies. The power that a TechLeaders workshop holds for many attendees can be transformational. For example, I was stopped while visiting a research group by a woman who had attended a TechLeaders a couple of years ago, and she told me how the experience had changed her life. She was returning to work after having a baby, and wasn't sure if she fit into a research life any more. After attending a TechLeaders, she returned, changed her research area, and found new inspiration from the women she met, and is now considered one of the top researchers at her Institution. Certainly for me, when I hear the stories of other women, I am reminded that I am not alone, and that each of us has the power to succeed if we set our mind to it. This particular TechLeaders workshop includes ways to to develop your negotiation skills, especially since it is common wisdom to realize that Women Don't Ask, and there are techniques and strategies to ask.

Central to the TechLeaders workshops is to feature leadership superstars as facilitator. This particular workshop is facilitated by Jo Miller , whose columns in our newsletters are turning out to be one of our most popular features. If you aren't attending, don't worry, there will be more in the future.

Women in Technology Entrepreneurs Low

2008-05-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

I've spent my career as a high tech entrepreneur. Before I joined the Anita Borg Institute I spent twenty years at start ups, and I found the innovative drive fast paced and exhilarating. There are two articles that were published recently that points to the fact that women entrepreneurs are still poorly represented. Penny Herscher, an ABI board member and entrepreneurial two time CEO, was interviewed by the Mercury News about the continuing dearth of Women CEOs. Her blog is a wealth of knowledge about being a great CEO, but it is still very uncommon to see a woman at the helm of Technology Companies.

Another article in eWeek talks more broadly about the small number of technology companies, with women founders, especially VC backed companies. in fact only 4.3% of tech start-ups have participation of women, according to Dow Jones Venture Source. This seems at odds with the fact that Women-owned businesses are one of the fastest growing sectors in business. However most of these businesses stay small, and so the high impact that is the consequence of growth entrepreneurial enterprises is not being shared proportionally by technical women. If we want the contributions and impact of women to change the world, one of the great untapped potentials are through creating new growth companies by women.

NCWIT Keynotes

2008-05-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

I am at the National Center for Women and IT (NCWIT ) bi-annual meeting in Urbana-Champiaign at the University of Illinois. It was quite a challenge to get here, I was up at 3am yesterday morning, followed by an airplane and car drive. But is is worth it because of the community that attends, and the fantastic speakers.

There were two phenomenal women keynotes today - Mae Jamison, the first African American astronaut. She was inspirational to me, but what I really liked was her comment that "ideas are like potential energy, it is important to take the risk and put ideas into action". I know that action is what is important to me, in my job I hear lots of great ideas from people who aren't willing to invest their own time, or are frightened by the risk.

Lydia Kavaraki, who I first met as the keynote of the 2006 Hopper Celebration, talked brilliantly of her work at the boundary between Computer Science and Bio-Molecules. Her work in Physical Computing reminds me how problems found at the boundaries between two (or more) disciplines often push the boundaries of both disciplines.

Learning Non-profit Leadership from Others

2008-05-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

After a spectacular Women of Vision event Thursday night (more later), I spent Friday with 15 other non-profit Executive Directors and CEO's at the CEN Leadership Institute. My background as a technologist did not prepare me for the diverse demands of leading a non-profit. It is so helpful to get together and talk with other non-profit leaders grappling with many of the same issues I am. Each and every time I attend, I learn something.

Yesterday, we were reminded how important life renewal is in order to keep being effective at our jobs. Linda Clever from Renew came to speak and reminded us about our work a few months ago, where we identified three areas that we will change for the better, and two things to celebrate. I am proud to say that two of the area I identified have changed for the better. I am celebrating the success of the increased impact of ABI. Seeing the results of Women of Vision the other night, it is easy to celebrate our success. Renewing is something that all non-profit leaders need to make a priority, and I was grateful for the reminder.

Women of Vision winner Justine Cassell

2008-05-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

When I think of the impact of Justine Cassell, the winner of the Anita Borg Institute's Women of Vision Leadership award ,I think about how positively students respond to her and her vision of technology. I first met Justine through Anita Borg when Justine was still on the faculty of MIT. Justine believes in a world where technology and people come together in important positive ways, and because of her belief she has brought a new field into existence. But I always think about the impact that Justine has on the students. A few years ago, at the Anita Borg Celebration, a local high school student wrote about her newly reaffirmed commitment to technology after watching Justine on the stage. She could see herself in the charismatic and very accessible young faculty. I admire Justine's commitment to her students, and a a world where many disciplines come together in positive ways.

Tomorrow is our Women of Vision award ceremony. Three women will be recognized, and I'll be there. I hope to see you.

Women of Vision winner Susan Landau

2008-05-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

Susan Landau is the winner of this year's Women of Vision Social Impact award. Susan is a remarkable role model for our community because she brings so many facets of herself to her work. She is a well respected Computer Science whose wisdom on security helps inform public policy, especially through her publication. The reason that I know Susan is because we serve together on CRA-W, a committee of senior academics and industry researchers who ABI frequently partners with. As an industry researcher, Susan worked with CRA-W to expand the participation of industry researchers, a group that often works closely with academics, but with different needs. Susan is the moderator for ResearcHers, a mailing list that uses the Systers infrastructure and its model for researchers.

Every time I see Susan she is brimming with idea about how to make a difference, such as a list of technical books written by women, or the ResearcHers community. Congratulations Susan.