As much as we have grown in technology, it is still not a great time for a woman in tech as they are still a minority. In 1935, women held 37% of the computer science jobs, by 2017, only 24% of the jobs were held by women, not to mention only 11% of the silicon valley executive job positions. Chrissy Weems agrees that as much as we have seen more and more discrimination of gender in the world of tech, there are women who have marched to become the most powerful women in technology, holding positions that are the pillars of technology in our world.
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO
Sheryl is the 2nd in command in the $516 billion company. Sandberg has been in the media lately like Capitol Hill over the accusations against Facebook and how it allowed the Russians to have an influence in the presidential elections that took place in 2016. Sandberg hopes that improving Facebook’s transparency will avoid new regulations from Washington that would restrict social platforms from monitoring themselves. Sandberg continues to champion gender equality in the workplace as a woman.
Susan Wojcicki, CEO YouTube
Susan has been in the limelight in the recent months as she has been speaking on the gender gap that is present in the Silicon Valley. When Susan took over the mantle on the video company YouTube in 2014, she increased the number of female employees to 30% from 24%. At the same time, female employees at Google rose to 31%.
Kirsten Green, Founder Forerunner Ventures
Kirsten started her venture capital company alone in 2003 and she has developed it to become a successful company. In 2016, Forerunner landed a $122 million fund which was its third largest fund. In July and August, Forerunner ventures made two early investments in Dollar Shave Club which is a razor delivery startup and Jet.com. These two companies offered the largest high profile exits in the last few years and Forerunner was the only company that made an investment.
Jean Liu, President Didi Chuxing
Didi is the Uber of China. Ever since Liu was assigned the role as president, she has been the image of the company and she has managed to fight hard Chinese markets over the years. Liu’s best achievement so far happened when Travis Kalanick from Uber agreed to sell Uber to Didi for a 20% stake in Didi Chuxing. This is a story that motivates women in tech.
Ginni Rometty, CEO, IBM
IN 1981, Ginni Rometty started her career in IBM and she has held very high positions of leadership in the company. She served in IBM sales, strategy, marketing, and later on she became the senior vice president and the group executive of IBM. One of Ginni’s greatest achievements at IBM was when she served as the senior vice president of Global Business Services of IBM. Ginni managed to successfully integrate PWC, Price Waterhouse Coopers Consulting. This was the largest acquisition in the history of professional services, as it created a global team of experts and over 100,000 service experts and business consultants.
Safra Catz, Co-CEO Oracle Corp
Safra Catz was born in Israel and later moved to Massachusetts to attend to Wharton University where she also concurrently pursued a Law degree at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 1986. Safra joined Oracle in 1999 when she was 54 years old where she served as the senior vice president and a member of the Board of Directors in 2001. One of Safra’s achievements is the acquisition of Oracle’s rival software company PeopleSoft for a whopping $19.3 billion. She is now the Co-CEO of Oracle after Larry Ellison the founder of Oracle stepped down.