Gender inequality in the tech industry has been a hot topic of conversation for a long time, but after almost two years of battling Covid-19, it is hard to ignore the reality that working through a pandemic did not inconvenience or debilitate all workers equally.
According to 2021 research from TrustRadius, women were nearly twice as likely as men to lose their jobs or be furloughed during the pandemic. As if that wasn’t enough, 78 percent of women in tech reported feeling that they have to work harder than their coworkers just to prove their worth during this time, often struggling to see a path forward due to the level of gender disparity.
“I noticed early on how the lack of diversity in my workplaces would impact how I was treated and the opportunities that I was offered,” said Nicole Barton, the head of software development and engineering in test at Dropbox. “I had to learn how to advocate for myself, how to determine who to trust and how to work through the roadblocks placed in my way due to my race and gender.”
Shelley Nall, the director of marketing and communications for the Americas at Cognite, understands that solidarity between women in the male-dominated tech industry is crucial to the success of women overall. “An important lesson to learn is that when one of us shines, all of us shine,” she said. “Leaders need to build trust and show the value of women supporting women through their own behavior.”
Gender equality in the tech industry is still quite a way off, but with strong role models supporting those in their teams and beyond, women taking their seat at the table is becoming more and more common. Built In sat down with eight women industry leaders across Austin to talk about their career journeys and how they ensure women at their companies are being heard and uplifted.
Tell us about your career journey. What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
My career to become a VP at 2K as a minority female in the gaming industry is a journey in itself.
I used to get immensely inspired as a little girl when I saw a woman on the cover of any business magazine. As naive as I was back then, I thought a management degree would be the only way to get there. I studied management after my STEM undergrad and worked a few years in multinational corporations to gain exposure and experience in the business world. I certainly got myself into the business woman attire and can safely say I was successful, but there was something missing.
Something kept drawing me back to the field of technology, so I trusted my gut and decided to leave everything I accomplished behind to pursue a masters in technology in the United States. Despite not ending up on the cover of a business magazine — or not yet, at least — it was the best thing I could have done.
I found my passion. There’s something to be said about not letting the dreams of your past hold back the dreams of your future. It’s ok to change your mind — the best leaders know when they need to and that’s what led me to where I am today.
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
Being an immigrant, being a female, being a female leader in tech and being a person of color, this journey is a different game for me than others. I have had to try extremely hard to get where I am and where I want to go. On this journey, I’ve been blessed with some amazing mentors and I try to do the same for others. I’m always impressed by how many fabulous and smart women there are in tech!
Personally, I’m excited to represent women in tech and gaming. These industries are waiting for us, but along with companies being ready, women have to be willing.
The journey can be hard and it’s too easy to give up or hold yourself back. The imposter syndrome is real and the gender discrimination is real, but you always have a path forward. If you stay focused and keep moving, there’s always a win waiting for you. The key that I try to share with other women is to stay consistent and to search for organizations like 2K that are actively engaging talent and removing bias.
As a leader I have the privilege of helping women believe in themselves. Leadership is truly a privilege — you can have such an impact on others.
As a leader I have the privilege of helping women believe in themselves.”
More subtly, what behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members, particularly to women in more junior roles?
Be you! Be unique. I can’t emphasize how significant it is, being a female in tech, to bring your authentic self and stop trying to fit in. I have been told by many leaders in the past how I should talk and how to not be myself. When I reflect back, following that advice led me to my worst productivity, happiness and mental health.
Being called bossy, difficult or aggressive, or being told “don’t talk in this meeting, only listen” — those words can be poison to your career because your mind can start to believe feedback that was motivated by gender bias and sexism.
Women — and especially women of color — who show ambition and healthy self-esteem can be mislabeled as angry, difficult or aggressive. We are often overlooked when we share ideas. If we as leaders can do one thing, it’s this: Every time you see a girl being told that she’s bossy, tell her she’s a leader instead. The more we talk about this, the more we will notice it and the faster we can move away from the idea of “female leaders” and just focus on being leaders. Your authentic self is enough.
Tell us about your career journey. What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
I’m an “accidental” HR person, but my journey to become the EVP of human resources and legal started in my childhood. Some of my fondest memories growing up center around volunteering with family members and I had strong female leadership to follow. As an example, my great-aunt, one of the first female attorneys and female drivers in Gujarat, India, drove me to deliver food to impoverished areas of Vadodara.
When deciding a career path, human rights seemed the natural choice for me. I spent four years working in the legal industry after law school before taking my people-first mindset to the corporate world. I started in sales operations and came into HR via a high-potential rotation program.
My very first job in HR was in diversity and inclusion. When I asked why I was selected for this role, I was told they wanted someone to come in with a business perspective who could really help the business leaders understand the quantitative value of diversity and inclusion.
You could say my current role is a culmination of both my head and my heart — I get to show the business value of keeping people at the center of everything while having the honor of leading a transformative employee culture.
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
My goal is to empower and uplift every employee and that starts by establishing an empowering, unified company culture. This means everyone from executive leaders to interns is encouraged to listen to each other in an effort to understand. It also means my HR and legal teams work with me to eliminate as much bias as we can from the recruiting, compensation and performance process, and that we onboard everyone, regardless of level, for success.
Specifically, when it comes to empowering and uplifting the women around me, I follow in the footsteps of the female leaders in my own life. My great-aunt and grandmother provided me with opportunities to learn and serve, and opportunities matter. When I listen to the women on my teams, I seek to understand what motivates and inspires them and where they want to grow professionally. Then I look for ways to foster their interests and strengths.
My goal is to empower and uplift every employee and that starts by establishing an empowering, unified company culture.”
More subtly, what behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members, particularly to women in more junior roles?
I believe that when we get down to the core, we are all more alike than we are different. We all want to be respected. We all want to feel like we are valued and understood. We all find fulfillment in purpose. If you take on a leadership role during your career, you should keep that in mind. As a leader, you should want to inspire everyone on your team.
To quote Maya Angelou, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
I want employees to be their authentic selves because that is how they can be their best both at work and beyond. For leaders to be a good example for their teams and especially for the women in junior roles, they must show up with honesty and integrity.
Lead with clear direction, lead by example and lead by serving. Encourage women on your team to adopt a pay-it-forward attitude to other women in their lives.
Tell us about your career journey. What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
Burnout caused me to leave my career as a research assistant and ignited a career change to take a QA analyst role. My love of data and research, plus a sales pitch from engineers in my family, led me to a fintech startup. I was grateful to be surrounded by devs who supported me as I taught myself system design, Java programming and quality engineering.
After 12 years in the industry, I found myself in a leadership position and firmly pressed against a glass ceiling. My want for continuous learning and more opportunities lead me to move across the country to California. The adjustment was a dramatic one, as the lack of diversity in tech companies was more profound and felt more debilitating in San Francisco than back east. This resulted in a more rigid glass ceiling and my jumping around to different startup companies to seek psychological safety and opportunity. I joined Dropbox because it is an innovative, technology-first company with a well respected office culture, mature DEI and values like “make work human” that I strongly align with.
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
I noticed early on how the lack of diversity in my workplaces would impact how I was treated and the opportunities that I was offered. I had to learn how to advocate for myself, how to determine who to trust and how to work through the roadblocks placed in my way due to my race and gender. I began studying organizational health and shifted to people management with the ultimate goal of creating work environments that I wished others had created for me.
At Dropbox, I created the “QA Social Circle” which gives QA engineers that identify as women, non-binary or gender free a place to lean into their shared experiences and support each other. I highly emphasize with my teams the importance of psychological safety, adopting a growth mindset and creating effective and inclusive communication channels. On a daily basis, I work to ensure that women’s voices are amplified in meetings and other communication channels, and that opportunities are offered fairly to everyone. As often as I can, I candidly share my experience navigating through racism, sexism and discrimination as an engineer with the hopes that folks can attach to the lessons I have learned and not have to repeat the same trials.
An active and dynamic approach to inclusion and a vivid appreciation of diversity are the best things a leader can offer their team members.”
More subtly, what behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members, particularly to women in more junior roles?
In my opinion, an active and dynamic approach to inclusion and a vivid appreciation of diversity are the best things a leader can offer their team members. Having self awareness around their own biases and triggers, as well as actively working to address them so others aren’t burdened with calling them out, is also extremely helpful. Normalizing failure in the workplace and candidly sharing stories of working through challenges can help foster more creativity, innovation and risk taking for team members.
It is important for women to exist in environments that actively value differences in how people approach their work, how they learn and how they work through challenges. Leaders can also encourage their team members to manage up, to establish professional development goals, to find mentors and to actively work to find creative opportunities for their team members to apply their strengths and work on growth areas. Openly advocating for psychological safety is another approach leaders can take by modeling healthy behavior and working to foster community on their teams with a focus on supporting each other in producing great work.
Tell us about your career journey. What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
My career has had several twists and turns over the past 22 years and all were foundational to where I am today. As a creative child, I assumed I would follow a career path oriented towards the arts and found my way to advertising after college. While I wasn’t exactly doing the creative work, I loved being in what was considered a creative industry. I lived in Boston and New York for 10 years, working for large agencies such as Digitas and JWT. Today, I coach college grads that doing a little time in the agency world builds an excellent foundation for hard work and navigating complex internal and external corporate orgs. I have memories of presenting to the CMO of T. Rowe Price, hosting dinner for six senior IHG executives and helping facilitate a commercial with Will Arnett.
After moving to Austin to start a family and working at a small agency, I was ready for a change. My agency happened to share a parking lot with a local software company that was getting buzz for its growth and incredible culture. During my first interview with Bazaarvoice, they told me that I would make a great customer success director. I accepted the role and haven’t looked back since!
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
I think the most important thing I’ve done to empower and uplift the women around me is give them space. Space to have a career and be a mother — life doesn’t take a break between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Space to flex their strengths and take on or own projects that help them grow on their career paths and build their professional brands. I try to be available to women throughout my company who ask for mentorship or maybe want to talk through a challenge they are facing in their roles. I try to let them take the lead as often as I can while still being a sounding board or a brand builder for them along the way.
I try to be available to women throughout my company who ask for mentorship or maybe want to talk through a challenge.”
More subtly, what behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members, particularly to women in more junior roles?
I think it is so important to be authentic. Authenticity means being comfortable showing your flaws. I joke with my team all the time about my tendency to be disorganized and show gratitude to those who make up for my lack of skill in that department. I try to own up to my mistakes — we all make them, even at the highest level of leadership. This enables women earlier in their careers and empowers them to take risks, make mistakes and learn from them, knowing that their leaders do the same.
I also give my team insight into my personal life. I have three young children. I call myself “The Lincoln Lawyer” because some meetings are happening en route to lacrosse practice, in the parking lot of the school or with my daughter doing gymnastics in the background. There have been some 5 p.m. meetings that are accompanied with a glass of wine. I think my team appreciates that and it’s made it easier for them to approach me anytime they need help or advice.
Tell us about your career journey. What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
In a word, my career journey has been meandering. I went to school for advertising with a focus on design. Since then, I’ve worked in business development, sales, marketing and public relations for a law firm, an architecture firm, an e-commerce platform, a video game start-up, a communications agency and an industrial software company.
The most defining moment of my career is starting it with no firm plan. When I graduated, I was fortunate to have the support necessary to move to London more or less on a whim. I learned that you don’t need to know what will happen in order to try. That lesson has shaped how I’ve approached many of my career moves, with an attitude of “let’s see where this takes me.”
The most crucial thing is that you are always learning. Even the jobs you hate will teach you something about your strengths, passions and what you need to learn next to keep growing.
In short, I’d say I’ve gotten to where I am today by not worrying too much about my career journey. I admire people with a clear vision, those with five or ten year plans, but I’m here to tell you that it’s also okay to meander.
You don’t need to know what will happen in order to try.”
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
If you will allow me to generalize a bit, women are socialized to be more concerned for others than themselves. It can be challenging for a woman to speak up, take full credit for her accomplishments, ask for what she needs or call out microaggressions. I know it’s hard for me to do that for myself, so I make a point of doing it for other women in my daily life. As a leader, you are in a unique position to do this for your women colleagues. Meetings are where I always look for opportunities to empower other women in the room. Make sure the right people are in the room by reviewing the invitee list beforehand and adding women you know will bring value to the conversation. Find ways to include all women in the room in the conversation. Redirect the conversation back if someone is interrupted.
More subtly, what behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members, particularly to women in more junior roles?
This answer goes hand-in-hand with my previous one. An important lesson to learn is that when one of us shines, all of us shine. I have been fortunate to work for many strong women who were genuinely interested in my success and generous with their time to answer questions, offer feedback and celebrate my achievements. These women accepted risks for themselves to give me opportunities or stand up for me. Perhaps more helpful than anything was their eagerness to tell me about their own most embarrassing mistakes to keep me from making my own. This type of selflessness can feel counterintuitive to the dog-eat-dog mentality of corporate ladder climbing, but leaders need to build trust and show the value of women supporting women through their own behavior.
Tell us about your career journey. What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
I started at MVF right after college as an AE doing full cycle sales and account management. I moved into a senior AE role a year later. As one of the first hires in our US office, I had the unique opportunity to help train and mentor new starters and I found that I really enjoyed that side of the business. I’ve been managing teams for about four years now and it’s been really rewarding to see people who I’ve coached become leaders in the business.
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
I’ve been lucky enough to work with incredible women in leadership at MVF who have supported me throughout my six years on the team. Their willingness to make time and be my internal champions has made a massive impact for me, so it’s something I strive to replicate for the women joining our team now. I think one of the most valuable things we as managers can do is to mention our team members’ names in rooms full of opportunity.
I think one of the most valuable things we as managers can do is to mention our team members’ names in rooms full of opportunity.”
More subtly, what behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members, particularly to women in more junior roles?
I personally like to highlight some of the awesome women I work with. One of our most talented salespeople is a woman who became our first enterprise AE and is the epitome of great values and high performance. I frequently use her as an example with candidates and new hires. It’s important to call out wins and ensure that it’s not just your most vocal team members who are celebrated. Above all, respect others and acknowledge everyone’s contribution to the team.
Tell us about your career journey. What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
I started my career as a college English instructor and then moved into educational technology. I had a variety of roles in sales, marketing, editorial and product. Eventually I found my way to Favor where I became the VP of product.
I’ve had a few defining career moments, but one that has stuck with me happened about 10 years ago. I had recently been promoted and it was my first role leading a large team and managing senior people. They had high expectations of me and many of them were older than me. The company had gone through some recent upheaval and we’d had a rough year. I scheduled an offsite with the team and went through a series of strategic topics, thinking the day was going well. At the end of the day, a senior member of the team approached me, visibly upset. “When are we going to talk about things that matter?” she asked me. “The company is changing and people are nervous. How do we show people the path ahead?”
At that moment, I realized that job was mine and I hadn’t done it — talking about strategy wasn’t enough. Being a leader is one half strategy and one half people. If you’re not having real conversations with your people, you’re not doing the whole job.
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
In the simplest terms, I’ve hired women, promoted women and worked to put women in positions where they have autonomy, visibility and career growth.
Sometimes that has meant encouraging a woman who is on the fence about pursuing management, talking through her reservations and questions, and ultimately building a plan with her that makes us both confident in her ability to succeed. Sometimes that has meant validating a woman’s feelings about feeling marginalized as the only woman on a team and ensuring that her concerns get addressed. What I hope it means is that I am someone other women feel comfortable talking with about career and personal challenges and that I am a collaborator, problem-solver and champion who helps people realize their goals, even ones they may not have known they had.
It’s possible to win through collaboration and doing the right thing.”
More subtly, what behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members, particularly to women in more junior roles?
Uniquely, the leader of the first company I worked for was a woman. She set an awesome example of how to lead and run a company. She modeled inclusiveness, collaboration, ethics, humor and rigor. We succeeded by working together, doing the right thing and having fun while doing it — all while holding each other to a high standard. That’s a tall order, but to me, it is the recipe for personal success and an awesome team culture that great people want to be a part of. It’s important for women — and for everyone — to see these behaviors modeled so they understand it’s possible to both have fun and succeed. It’s possible to both hold people accountable and to be compassionate toward them. It’s possible to win through collaboration and doing the right thing. That’s the kind of culture I want to build and watch other women build.
Tell us about your career journey. What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
I was 14 when I got my first job as a busser at a restaurant. They were concerned that a girl wouldn’t be able to carry the heavy trays but my mom assured them I’d be just fine. She told me that if I approached the job focused on my strengths, I’d be the best busser they had. I applied my love of organization and efficiency to quickly prove myself. I’ve carried that literally and figuratively ever since.
After college, I took a series of jobs in male-dominated industries. I felt intense pressure as the odd woman out and found myself trying to change to become what I perceived as the “right” style. I forgot that it was my strengths that set me apart and felt even more pressure trying to change. As I began to surround myself with a network of strong women and could share what I was going through, I started to remember that the way to succeed was as myself. As a result, I found roles that reinforced that.
I was lucky enough to join SourceDay and much of my growth has been due to amazing leadership. Two female leaders were always willing to listen, share and support me. I’m so grateful for this and hope to model it for my team.
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
It’s key that my team knows we value their contribution. In the past, I’ve seen a prescriptive management style for women based on age, marital status, familial status or race —versus managing for the individual. It’s hard to feel empowered and grow when you don’t feel seen. One of the ways I empower my team is by being specific with praise. During the hiring process, two team members had awesome cover letters that really set them apart. I made certain to share that with them and still point out where their thoroughness is making us better. Another team member is managing a customer I previously managed and we talk about why her skill set is the game changer that we needed.
I also want my team to know that they’re trusted. As women, we are often told to ask permission versus trust our gut, so we can miss opportunities to be proactive. Two of my team members are helming new roles and I love seeing them take initiative. I have their back and am happy to be a sounding board, but I also trust their expertise.
Lastly, I want my team to be able to ask for what they need to feel valued, fulfilled and respected. We are a team — if it matters to them, it matters to me!
It’s hard to feel empowered and grow when you don’t feel seen.”
More subtly, what behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members, particularly to women in more junior roles?
It’s important to me that the women I work with see me leading by example. I’m transparent with them when I’m taking time off because of a sick child or leaving for a personal appointment during business hours. I encourage them to prioritize their lives because we’re all ultimately happier and the quality of work delivered is better for it.
I talk openly with my team about what we’re each going through. They get imposter syndrome? Cool, I do too — what can we do to help each other combat it? If they’re struggling with work life balance, how can I help? I share my goals and encourage them to do the same so that we can work together and celebrate all wins.
We talk about representation and why it’s important we see ourselves in our leadership and teammates, but also why it’s important that we see all women represented. I make sure they know I’m sharing that with our leadership and encourage them to do the same without hesitation. It is a goal we are always working towards together.
