New York
CNN
—
When Susan Wojcicki was named CEO of YouTube in 2014, she was in comparatively good firm as a lady chief in Silicon Valley.
Marissa Mayer, her former colleague at Google, was working Yahoo and posing for journal covers. Sheryl Sandberg was the influential second-in-command at Facebook who had simply printed a best-selling guide on company feminism. Former California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman was on the helm of HP, and Ginni Rometty was the primary lady in cost of IBM.
Wojcicki’s announcement final week that she is stepping down from her management position at YouTube marks the top of an period. The tech trade has now misplaced a whole generation of trailblazing women leaders and changed them largely with males.
“It’s almost like we have to start from scratch,” stated Sheryl Daija, the founder of Bridge, an advocacy group comprised of dozens of variety, fairness, and inclusion enterprise leaders.
The tech sector has lengthy lagged different industries in terms of the illustration of women in leadership roles. And within the wake of the pandemic, women leaders in company America extra broadly are extra possible than ever to give up, in keeping with the most recent Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org. Just days earlier than Wojcicki’s announcement, Meta’s chief enterprise officer, Marne Levine, additionally stated she can be leaving after a 13-year run on the firm.
None of the Big Five US tech firms — Alphabet, Apple, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft — have ever had a lady CEO, and Wojcicki’s chief govt title at Alphabet-subsidiary YouTube maybe put her the closest. Now that she’s departing, Big Tech is dealing with a brand new reckoning over its failure to advertise and help women leaders, and what this might imply for the following generation of women within the trade.
As a lady in Silicon Valley, “It’s fair to say you have to fight a little harder,” stated Sima Sistani, the co-founder and former CEO of the app Houseparty, who held management roles at Epic Games, Yahoo and Tumblr earlier than turning into CEO of Weight Watchers final 12 months.
“Having a network of other women was critical to my success,” Sistani stated. “And I give a lot of credit to the women who helped support and also blaze the trail forward.”
Sistani isn’t alone in preventing the uphill battle women in tech face. Silicon Valley has lengthy taken warmth for its male-dominated “bro-culture.”
Francoise Brougher, the previous chief working officer of Pinterest, sued the social media platform for gender discrimination and retaliation in 2020, arguing in court docket paperwork that she was fired after reporting “demeaning sexist comments” in direction of her from one other firm govt. Pinterest settled the lawsuit later that year, however the authorized battle was seen as one more instance in a string of incidents highlighting how even probably the most highly effective women in tech are handled.
There are nonetheless a handful of, albeit lesser-known, women within the higher echelon of tech, together with Meta CFO Susan Li, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, and Lisa Su, CEO of chipmaker AMD. Meanwhile, some well-known women in tech, similar to Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s former head of authorized, coverage and belief, have turn into targets of vicious on-line harassment campaigns.
Laura Kray, a professor of management on the University of California, Berkeley, stated 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.”
Now on the helm of Weight Watchers, Sistani brings her digital experience to the corporate, in addition to her expertise as a lady chief within the office. Late final 12 months, Sistani, a mom of two, expanded Weight Watchers’ paid parental go away coverage, a transfer she seen as essential for driving equitable alternatives for all mother and father on the firm.
Kray, who can be the director of Berkeley’s Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership, stated that having women in high management positions is essential because it offers entry-level women position fashions and mentorship alternatives “from leaders who may have faced similar challenges as they rose through the ranks.”
This illustration on the very high is important for women in center administration, the purpose at which women are likely to see their greater profession 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 stated.
Daija, of the Bridge group, added that one lesson from this exodus of high-profile women tech leaders is the significance of succession planning, to make sure that when a lady CEO steps down there are different women able to construct 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 stated.
Wojcicki can be succeeded by Neal Mohan, a 15-year Google vet who was most lately the chief product officer at YouTube.
While Sistani stated it could possibly really feel like “we’ve taken a step back” with so many high-profile women in tech stepping apart, she added, “I think that it’s important for us to also look for the places where things are working.”
She pointed to the truth that women CEOs now run greater than 10% of Fortune 500 firms for the first time in history.
“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.”
