Technology
A generation of high-profile women tech leaders have stepped aside
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Marissa Mayer, her former colleague at Google, was running Yahoo and posing for magazine covers. Sheryl Sandberg was the influential second-in-command at Facebook who had just published a best-selling book on corporate feminism. Former California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman was at the helm of HP, and Ginni Rometty was the first woman in charge of IBM.
None of the Big Five US tech companies — Alphabet, Apple, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft — have ever had a woman CEO, and Wojcicki’s chief executive title at Alphabet-subsidiary YouTube perhaps put her the closest. Now that she’s departing, Big Tech is facing a new reckoning over its failure to promote and support women leaders, and what this could mean for the next generation of women in the industry.
In Silicon Valley’s boy’s club, women ‘have to fight a little harder’
As a woman in Silicon Valley, “It’s fair to say you have to fight a little harder,” said Sima Sistani, the co-founder and former CEO of the app Houseparty, who held leadership roles at Epic Games, Yahoo and Tumblr before becoming CEO of Weight Watchers last year.
“Having a network of other women was critical to my success,” Sistani said. “And I give a lot of credit to the women who helped support and also blaze the trail forward.”
Sistani isn’t alone in fighting the uphill battle women in tech face. Silicon Valley has long taken heat for its male-dominated “bro-culture.”
Laura Kray, a professor of leadership at the University of California, Berkeley, said that with Wojcicki’s exit from YouTube, “it is hard to read the latest departure of a high-profile woman leader as anything but more evidence that the tech sector has not realized its stated aspirations for creating inclusive cultures that are able to attract and retain top talent.”
Driving change for the future
Now at the helm of Weight Watchers, Sistani brings her digital expertise to the company, as well as her experience as a woman leader in the workplace. Late last year, Sistani, a mother of two, expanded Weight Watchers’ paid parental leave policy, a move she viewed as crucial for driving equitable opportunities for all parents at the company.
Kray, who is also the director of Berkeley’s Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership, said that having women in top leadership positions is crucial as it gives entry-level women role models and mentorship opportunities “from leaders who may have faced similar challenges as they rose through the ranks.”
This representation at the very top is critical for women in middle management, the point at which women tend to see their higher career aspirations realized or thwarted. “Without women in the C-suite who have come before them, it could make this transition period tougher for next generation women leaders,” Kray said.
Daija, of the Bridge organization, added that one lesson from this exodus of high-profile women tech leaders is the importance of succession planning, to ensure that when a woman CEO steps down there are other women ready to build on their progress. “When the roles are replaced with the same representation that we already have, we don’t keep losing ground, we maintain, and we build,” she said.
Wojcicki will be succeeded by Neal Mohan, a 15-year Google vet who was most recently the chief product officer at YouTube.
While Sistani said it can feel like “we’ve taken a step back” with so many high-profile women in tech stepping aside, she added, “I think that it’s important for us to also look for the places where things are working.”
“Instead of getting discouraged in these moments, we can think about what a great example someone like Susan [Wojcicki] is setting,” Sistani added. “I think that what she achieved and what she modeled will be something that will live on beyond the fact that now we don’t have a female Big Tech CEO.”
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