The equality between men and women when it comes to job opportunities has always been a topic of debate. Women have not been given equal chances in the work field, especially in handling leadership responsibilities. It’s usually the men who are given the top or managerial positions.
However, change has been seen concerning this matter in the recent years. Although you would still find some men who are paid more than what is paid to their women counterparts, the situation was much worse several years ago. Take for instance in the year 1963; during this period, men were earning almost half more than what women on the same position would earn.
The difference in pay was not the only concern of women in the workplace before. They even experienced sexual harassment, but couldn’t do anything about it because the courts did not recognize it until the year 1977. Moreover, they had tighter restrictions when it came to the clothes they wore in the workplace. There are even companies that would have specific requirements on their weight!
Even education wasn’t fairly given to women in the past. In fact, even those who were known to be that intelligent couldn’t just get into any university that they wanted to enter. They were also not allowed to vote and join the military. All of these have changed today.
At the present time, you would not just see female employees working in various companies, but some of them are now leaders or founders of their own companies. This change is not only seen in businesses, but in politics as well since there are now women who do not just lead a company, but an entire city or country too!
While the idea of women leading in different industries is becoming more and more accepted, there are areas that are still difficult for them to penetrate and one of them is the tech field. The tech world is still surrounded by men, although this doesn’t mean that women have zero presence in it. There are also women who have made it in the male dominated tech world, although they are still few compared to their presence in other industries.
You can find thousands of tech companies and corporations in Silicon Valley. However, a survey shows that only 18% of the executive or managerial positions were given to female employees. Moreover, the percentage is even lower when it comes to women who are accepted by huge tech enterprises.
The statistics is not all bad concerning women in the tech field. This is because according to a report made by Forbes, businesses in the tech industry that are managed by female leaders may earn more. Plus, studies have also shown that tech companies that were established by women also tend to become more successful. This just shows that given the opportunity, there’s not a doubt that women can effectively lead business, even if it’s in the world of technology.
Although the population of women in the tech field is very minimal, there have been some women who proved that they could become leaders in this industry, and not just any kind of leaders, but excellent ones too! One of these amazing women is Sheryl Sandberg; the COO of the most popular social networking site, Facebook. During her time as the COO in 2015, billions of users accessed the site each day and the company also reached its highest earnings at $3.69 billion.
Then there’s Susan Wojcicki who is the CEO of the most famous video site, YouTube. Over one billion users visit the site every day and it has a value of $70 billion. Another admirable woman who made an impact in this field is Angela Ahrendts who is Apple’s SVP for retail. Ahrendts was the first female to handle an executive position under Apple CEO Tim Cook’s leadership. Meg Whitman is another inspiring woman who is a leader in the tech industry. She is the CEO of another tech giant, Hewlett-Packard. The revenue of eBay soared up under her management.
We want to encourage women who wish to make it on top of the tech world to follow their dreams. This is why we created an infographic that lists the world’s most powerful women in tech for the year 2016, in which they could get inspiration from.
Be inspired with the illustration below:
Were you motivated with what you read? We have more infographics about careers in different industries at www.personalincome.org. You would also find posts on investment, wealth, budgeting and finance on the site.