Melinda Gates: Tech must include more women
The lack of gender diversity in the technology world can be a selffulfilling problem, philanthropist and technologist Melinda Gates said Wednesday in Orlando.
The tech leader was in Central Florida to keynote the Grace Hopper Conference, a three-day event celebrating women in technology.
“It’s hard to be a woman in technology, so women don’t go into technology, which makes it harder to be a woman in technology,” she said.
More than 18,000 signed up to attend the conference, and Gates’ speech filled a ballroom and multiple spill-over areas at the Orange County Convention Center.
Featuring a high-profile woman, such as Gates, could encourage others to pursue careers in technology, said Orlando-based Robin Hernandez, director of private cloud offerings at IBM. Highlighting those women in Orlando could be done better, too, she said.
“Until they see it and see other women who are successful, then they don’t feel like it’s for them or it’s something they can handle,” Hernandez said.
Gates encouraged those in the crowd to help convince young girls and women to pursue tech careers because the more who did, the better off society could be, she said.
She said they should learn early in life that programming solves realworld problems not necessarily related to technology, Gates said. The trick is to teach young girls that computer science can be applied to just about any industry, she said.
“That girl deserves the chance to rise as high as her talents are going to take her,” Gates said. “The world deserves a chance to see what that girl can do.”
The data has not been as encouraging as she would have hoped, Gates said. Conference organizer AnitaB.org surveyed 63 large tech companies that collectively employ more than 574,000 workers, finding that 22.95 percent of their workers were women. That’s up just more than a percentage point from last year’s survey.
Gates said she has been encouraged by colleges and high schools that partner with local businesses for tours.
Other programs that offer a bridge between specific majors and strategies that show how computer science applies to those fields help, too, she said.
“For anyone and everyone who has talent and interest, there should be a way into tech,” Gates said. “Not just one pipeline. Many pathways.”
The next big idea, Gates stressed, could come from someone in the predominantly female audience.
“It’s time to recognize that the next Bill Gates might not look anything like him,” she said.