Diversity Woman Magazine

FALL 2015

Leadership and Executive Development for women of all races, cultures and backgrounds

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We Mean Business > 30 D I V E R S I T Y W O M A N Fa l l 2 0 1 5 d i v e r s i t y w o m a n . c o m billboards for Dice.com, a platform for tech jobs, with not-so-in-shape 20-some- thing men in boxers posing seductively under a tagline that reads, "Find the hot- test tech talent." Tis image, Fran Maier argues, is a big part of the problem. In March, Maier, THINKSTOCKPHOTOS the founder of Match.com and TRUSTe, wrote a piece on Medium that addressed why images are so important to who de- cides to start tech companies. "I heard that the number of girls going into computer science felds went down around 1980, during the PC boom," she says. "Tat was when most computer ads showed dads with their sons. Te images we were send- ing to young women were that they were not welcome, that they were not part of this club. Images matter." Today, gender discrimination in tech is, she says, in the margins. "Maybe there is a team thinking about hiring someone and the job goes to a person the guys know already," she explans. "I see men get those opportunities more than women." Even so, the tech sector is friendlier than ever to women, Maier attests. Tis is in part thanks to the Lean In movement, started by Facebook COO Sheryl Sand- berg's book of the same name, and the recent gender discrimination lawsuit fled by Ellen Pao, a former associate at Kleiner Perkins Caufeld & Byers, one of the larg- est venture capital frms in Silicon Valley. "Tese high-profle examples allow us to talk out loud about this," she says. "In companies, we can say, 'Tis isn't right, we need to expand our recruiting pool,' and that is a good thing." ANDREA BARRICA "I see micro-aggressions." Early this year, Andrea Barrica, cofounder of inDinero and entrepreneur-in-residence at 500 Startups, was attending a tech con- ference when a male worker walked on stage and made a joke about data centers. "He said, 'Data centers are like women, not only powerful, but really expensive,'" she says. "Tis got a huge laugh from the crowd." Tese types of comments, what Barrica calls micro-aggressions, hurt women in tech. "You can't call it out right then and there—but it makes the environment not great," she says. What would help turn the tide? "A fe- male archetype," she says, adding that if more powerful women spoke out on the Organizations working to close the gender gap Ada Initiative: A nonproft that supports women in open technology through events and community build- ing. adainitiative.org Girl Develop It: A nonproft that offers women classes on web and soft- ware development. girldevelopit.com Hackbright Academy: A school for women who want to learn how to be software engineers. hackbrightacademy. com Levo: A community for young tech entrepreneurs that offers mentor matching and content to help business owners build their businesses. levo.com Portfolia: A platform that enables indi- viduals to invest in start-up companies. portfolia.com Springboard Enterprises: An ac- celerator for female-led tech companies. sb.co Women 2.0: An organization that pro- vides community, content, and events for women in tech. women2.com Women's Startup Lab: A Silicon Valley-based tech accelerator for women that lasts from two weeks to two months. womensstartuplab.com — Katie Morell

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