My Business Journey & Philosophy to Promote Women in Tech
I had the opportunity to join Dr. Maribeth Kuzmeski as a guest this week on her fantastic podcast, The Female Insight Zone.
We had a fantastic conversation! I was able to talk about my journey as an entrepreneur, as well as my business expertise. The most important point we touched on, though, was how to promote women in the business environment and help more women achieve success.
My Philosophy: The “Bottom-Up” Approach
I find we put a lot of emphasis on a “top-down” approach to promoting women and diversity. Look at technology fields, for example; a lot of the drive for representation is driven by HR departments hunting for qualified female candidates.
The problem: we’re not producing the number of candidates to match.
That’s what I’m talking about when I mention a “bottom-up” approach. We need to develop the candidates to fill these roles, and that means encouraging young women to explore STEM and other traditionally male-dominated fields.
Many girls who may never have thought to explore technology, for example, will discover an aptitude they never realized they had. I first discovered my passion for technology completely by accident; I ended up in a computer class in high school, simply because all the other electives were full. Things could have turned out very differently if not for that simple twist of fate.
That’s why it’s so important to encourage girls at a young age to explore technology. Encourage young girls to test their capabilities and supporting them as they pursue an education in those fields would be an incredible step toward a more dynamic and representative industry. I mean, just look at other countries like China. They have near-parity for gender representation in technology, and that’s simply the result of requiring tech education in school, just like any other academic subject. If we don’t take similar steps, we risk falling behind the technological curve.
Of course, that’s just one part of our conversation. Click here to listen to the full episode.
