When we hosted our first Women in Identity reception at Navigate ’16, we knew it would be a success. After the reception, we realized that it was necessary. Creating a landscape where women are empowered in a primarily male-occupied field is what builds the foundation for women in STEM fields. The inspiration and advice shared in that one event bolstered my belief that a strong support system is key in breaking the barriers for women in tech.
In an article recently published by Financial Times, a young professional named Holly Rostill told her story about taking the path even less taken by women – a career in cybersecurity. The article noted that just 10 percent of IT professionals are women. That number has not gone up in two years.
Reading that article had me thinking back on my early career in highly technical companies and where I am today. There are situations that I know defined my path to success.
It started with my parents, both dentists with their own offices and clients. Some of my earliest memories are of my dad boasting about my mom being so great at her job and how much better she was at running her business and in her profession than he was. That put my sister and me in the mindset that we could be great. Gender barriers were not an object or obstacle to us.
In my early career, I was fortunate to have executives – who were male – as my champions. They gave me the encouragement and autonomy to establish myself as a professional and equal among my male peers. Later in my career I was mentored by my brother-in-law, who gave me valuable perspective and could point out when something holding me back was directly gender-related. He told me to go for it, even if I thought I did not have the skill set, and that the most important thing was that I had the ability to gain skills quickly.
Rather than being intimidated by the men around me, I went into each job I had with full confidence that I was just as capable as they were to get the job done. It was important to me to not distinguish myself as a female co-worker, but as a highly-skilled, adaptable co-worker. Sometimes, this meant joining in with the men and being the only woman present. I learned to take jokes and subtle jabs at gender in stride. Learning to joke back served me well in making my way up to the top of my field.
My advice to women in tech is to find their champions, whether they are men or women, and use them as not just role models, but a sounding board. I share this story as a lesson to my fellow executives, both male and female, to encourage you be a champion for the young professional women in your company. To the women in tech just starting out, while I do consider myself very lucky to have been surrounded by so much support and encouragement, sometimes you make your own luck and success follows shortly after.
