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People Were Asked To Name Women Tech Leaders. They Said 'Alexa' and 'Siri' (fastcompany.com)

Posted by msmash on from the not-the-onion dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: The tech industry has a persistent problem with gender inequality, particularly in its leadership ranks, and a new study from LivePerson underscores just how depressingly persistent it truly is. When the company asked a representative sample of 1,000 American consumers whether they could name a famous woman leader in tech, 91.7% of respondents drew a complete blank, while only 8.3% said they could. But wait, it gets worse: Of those 8.3% who said they could name a famous woman tech leader, only 4% actually could -- and a quarter of those respondents named "Siri" or "Alexa." Now, granted, this represents only about 10 people in the survey group, but that's 10 people for whom the most famous woman in tech is a virtual assistant.

6 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. I can barely name any either by Galaga88 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I consider myself pretty tech-savvy and supportive of diversity and the only one I could think of was Melissa something who got fired or something from Yahoo? One from HP I think who was running for office. And another one who was with that bio firm that was apparently faking lab results or something. I can name plenty of female politicians however.

    I don't know if that's my fault, the fault of the press/media/society for not making me more aware, or the industry for having practically no women in it.

    1. Re:I can barely name any either by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Also, it is silly to say this is a "tech" issue, since tech is actually doing much better than other industries. Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Melissa Mayers, were all CEOs of major tech firms. Even those led by men have women in high levels, such as Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook. 45% of top executives at Google are female.

      What other industry does as well?

      Journalists just like to pick on techies because we make more money, and we are changing the world and they aren't.

    2. Re:I can barely name any either by butchersong · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I can tell you that when something breaks or needs built around the farm... the women have zero interest in it. They want to take care of the animals or do house chores/cooking. Maybe some yard work or gardening. All of that is good and needs doing but believe me, I would love some help repairing fence or building a run-in shed or whatever else. None are interested in things or designing stuff.

      Strip away the abstractions of modern life and take things back to basics, you learn some core truths pretty quick.

    3. Re:I can barely name any either by Myrdos · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly, women in general are less likely to be interested in tech than men and therefore less likely to get into tech roles. It has nothing to do with inequality and everything to do with personal preference.

      I used to think that way. Now, I'm not so sure. When I was in high school in the 90s, only boys were likely to play video games. The girls just weren't interested. Maybe you'd find a girl who played one game because her brothers played it or something.

      Fast forward to today. Girls are playing video games left and right. And it's not just dating sims or Barbie Adventure or whatever, they're fragging people online. My point is that we thought there was an inherent difference in preferences between the genders, and it turned out we were mostly wrong. Games makers catered to boys because there was overwhelming evidence that there was almost no female interest in gaming. It's amazing how people conform to the way society expects them to be.

      Conversely, if IT support became known as a "girl thing", I bet the number of men trying to get in would plummet. And they would be genuinely disinterested, not just faking it to fit in.

  2. Gender Inequality by GoJays · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This gender inequality stuff is really starting to get to me. *facepalm*

    What if, a certain gender just doesn't naturally have an interest in a certain subject? When I went to school for computer network administration almost 15 years ago now, there were 6 girls in my program of about 600. It is not that they weren't allowed or being held back from applying. My program was in the same course application guide as all the rest. I imagine females just don't care to work/learn about computer networks. Similarly, males just generally don't care to go into Early Childhood Education, or Nursing. With that said, you don't see me screaming out how men are misrepresented in the day care workforce! Not everything in this world has to be equal, that's what makes it so special. People like different shit. It is not that males are keeping females out of their "club", in fact I think some males would be MORE THAN welcoming to have a few female companions working in IT, as it would be the only exposure they have to the opposite sex.

    So if women aren't going into IT related jobs because they don't have an interest for it, how can one expect a woman to be in a leadership role for one such company? Generally people who lead companies, started said company and have a deep interest in that subject. Makes sense to me.

  3. Could we skip the clickbait please? by ScrappyTheObscure · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is a really poor quality Slashdot story - and I say that as a woman.
    Yes of course *I* can name women who are or have been company leaders in tech (Melissa Mayer, Sheryl Sandberg)
    And I can also name hands-on technologists. Grace Hopper, Ada Lovelace, Kathy Sierra and Sandi Metz all come to mind without trying.

    That said, "we have a problem with an absence of women in tech -- most people can only name Siri and Alexa" is a story without real merit.
    If you must discuss gender imbalance in our industry could you pick something smacking a bit less of click-bait as your only link? I mean, please.

    If you'd like a link talking about why gender diversity is actually a boon to companies, try this one:
    https://www.ncwit.org/sites/de...

    If you'd like a link on ways of actually getting women to take the computer science plunge, try this one:
    https://cs.stanford.edu/people...

    I should really not allow myself to be trolled into commenting, but this is garbage and Slashdot can do better without even trying very hard.