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Maggie Shiels

Valley Girls

  • Maggie Shiels
  • 2 Oct 08, 11:40 GMT

Silicon Valley has a male testosterone driven image. It is a fact pure and simple that the chino brigade outnumbers the fairer sex in the boardroom and on the high tech shop floor.

Studies have shown that about 20% of IT jobs are held by women and an even smaller proportion occupy a C-level office. A report last year by UC Davis showed that despite Silicon Valley's cutting edge image it ranked dead last for female execs. A mere 9% in case you are wondering.

A while back California Congresswoman Jackie Speier said "The growth of women in executive offices and board rooms is as slow as molasses."

When I was here in 2000, there were a small number of very able women getting the job done. From Meg Whitman at eBay to Carol Bartz at Autodesk and Carly Fiorina at HP. Though her role was controversial to say the least and she was eventually driven out of her job.

Despite the dismal results of the UC Davis study, women in senior roles certainly seem to be much more visible than they were back in the dotcom craze. They occupy starring roles at conferences and grace the front pages of magazines and newspapers like never before. But the question still remains as to what kind of dent they have made in that glass ceiling.

The Valley Girls series isn't so much concerned with answering that question as meeting some of the women who are trying to make their mark and shape the culture of the Valley and the industry.

This is not going to be a crusade. The issue of gender is intrinsic to the series but will not dominate. The aim is to try and lift the veil on who some of those female execs are and understand what drives them.

Padma WarriorThis week , a rare breed in the Valley as a female chief technology officer of a global company with more than 66,000 employees.

This self confessed geek joined less than a year ago from Motorola and talks to us about her passion for technology, her inspiration and her vision for the future.

Your suggestions for who you would like included in the series are more than welcome.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Oh look ANOTHER program about wonderful superwomen breaking into a male world.

    Why not profile men as well? are their experiences and opinions not as valid?

    Perhaps when the media stop portraying women in powerful roles as unusual they will stop being so and beome more common.

    Treat everyone on ability alone and eventually only ability will matter. True equality is letting the best get to the top, not trying to balance out the sexes, races or religions into some artificial reflexion on society.

    You claim not to be crusading yet women would be up in arms at a serious called "men's work" that profiled only powerful men in industries. Or a "white mans paradise" series that ignored other races.

    Don't get me wrong, I want to here these people's stories, but I have no interest in their sex so why restrict the series based on that?

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  • Comment number 2.

    Your article on Padmasree Warrior gave a rather one sided - Padmasree´s-view of this "geek". In a profile such as this, it is also important to talk to her peers, contemporaries, current and former colleagues to get a complete and balanced picture. Such research will also enable you to weed out those who are merely "high profile" as opposed to true "geeks" and "game-changers"

    One sided articles such as this will damage your credibility and devalue the selection process for featuring in your "valley girls" series

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  • Comment number 3.

    The Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University and the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology released new research yesterday (Oct 1, 2008) on the experience of women in Silicon Valley's high tech industry. "Climbing the Technical Ladder: Obstacles and Solutions for Mid-Level Women in Technology". It focuses on the mid-level point, where women most often experience the family/career crunch - and where women fall out of technical ranks as a result. Interestingly, many of our findings applied to men as well as women, and the recommendations for ways to increase retention of female talent will also help to retail the men. And this is worth knowing, because a third of the respondents in our survey of top tech companies, mainly headquartered in Silicon Valley, said they planned to leave their jobs in the next year. Staff turnover is expensive. Full disclosure, I'm the associate director of the Clayman Institute.

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  • Comment number 4.

    Can you please write in normal ´óÏó´«Ã½ English?

    I am an educated man from the East Midlands and have absolutly no clue what some of the things you said were supposed to mean:
    "chino brigade" – a slur on chinese firemen?
    "a C-level office" – my office has nothing between the basement, which is labelled 'B' on the lift and the ground floor, labelled 'G'.
    "UC Davis" – who is this Mr Davis?
    "molasses" – my first thought was a rare, disabled snail. according to google the word you meant to say was 'treacle'.

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