Celebrating Women in Tech and Their Achievements

Women are severely underrepresented in the tech industry, making up 25.9%of employees in 2018 and 28.8% in 2020. Although this number is increasing, it isn’t anywhere close to where it should be today.

We can change this with more support, resources, and visible role-models for women in the industry. Join Advantis in celebrating Women’s History Month by recognizing the achievements and contributions of some of the top women in tech!

Powerful Women in Tech

Susan Wojcicki – CEO of YouTube

Susan Wojcicki, a mother of five, is an excellent example of how influential women can be in the biggest tech companies. She was one of the first Google employees and pushed to acquire YouTube, which she now runs. In an interview with The Guardian, she says, “If only 25% of people coming into tech are women, then there are some stories and some perspectives that are not being shared.”

Reshma Saujani – Founder/CEO of Girls Who Code

Girls Who Code is a non-profit working to close the gender gap in STEM fields. CEO Reshma Saujani’s mission is to challenge the image of what a programmer looks like. In her TED Talk, Teach girls bravery, not perfection, she describes how differences in how we raise girls and boys impact their futures.Saujani teaches girls to program and take risks to affect the tech world the way she has!

Karen Matthys – Executive Director of Stanford’s Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME)

Karen Matthys has an impressive list of accomplishments,from leading Fortune 500 tech companies to lecturing on Artificial Intelligence and gender bias. Now, as Executive Director of the ICME, she develops relationships with companies and laboratories for fields such as:

·     Computational Mathematics

·     Data Science

·     Visualization

·     Machine Learning

Outside of academia, Karen works on the 30 by 30 campaign to increase women in STEM roles at all levels to 30% by 2030.

Megan Price – Executive Director of the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDG) 

Megan Price shows how technology can be used to benefit people worldwide. The HRDG performs statistical analysis of human rights issues to aid humanitarian efforts. In a Women in Data Science podcast episode, she describes how data can be used to fight injustice in Central America and the Middle East. As Executive Director, she drives strategy, leads projects, and presents at conferences.

Kimberly Bryant – Founder/Executive Director of Black Girls CODE

Black Girls CODE works to address another gap in the tech workforce, women of color. Founder Kimberly Bryant was initially an engineering manager at many large biotechs like Merck and Pfizer. Her company wants to provide girls of color opportunities to learn technical skills for their futures. Because of this achievement, she was honored by the White House for her work in tech inclusion.

Ellen Pao – Co founder and CEO of Project Include 

Ellen Pao is one of Silicon Valley’s leading advocates for diversity. She’s known as the former CEO of Reddit and for her landmark gender discrimination case against her former venture capital firm. Although she lost,her fight brought attention to the issue as she describes, “Some of us lose,and some of us win. What's important is that we're telling our stories and standing up for ourselves and one another."Ellen currently leads Project Include, which works with tech leaders to promote diversity and inclusion with data-based solutions.

Powerful Women in Tech Quotes

“I think the best piece of advice I can give to anyone with a dream is to never be afraid to share your dreams and talk about what you wish to create and see in the world. It’s often hard to share those pipedreams at the risk that they might not work out, but you never know who has the collaborations, networks, and visions to make your dreams a reality. So be careful and vigilant and protect yourself intelligently of course, but never be afraid to ask for help.” - Shree Bose, Co-found of Piper

“Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. It is easy to allow insecurities about age/experience level to prevent you from making a big demand, or asking for a meeting with an influential person, or even admitting that you need help. However, if you don’t at least pose the question, it will probably never happen. So go for it! You might be surprised at what can happen if you just ask.” - Olivia Pavco- GIaccia, founder of LabCandy

“There is no recipe, there is no one way to do things — there is only your way. And if you can recognize that in yourself and accept and appreciate that in others, you can make magic.” - Ara Katz, Chief Marketing Officer at Spring

“I think one of the big challenges is actually cultivating beginners’ minds and making sure you’re still open to the world and continue to see new things. You can actually get jaded. You can stop seeing things that are new. You can start fearing failure. Those are the things an entrepreneur needs—an open mind and the ability to see the world with new eyes.” - Caterina Fake, Co-Founder of Flickr and Hunch

Diversity at Advantis Global

At Advantis, we know that diversity creates a world of opportunity for the tech industry. We’re committed to connecting all people with tech opportunities, regardless of gender.