It seems like the big elephant in the room sometimes. I read a variety of opinions on why there are not more women CEOs, particularly at tech startups. I don’t intend to dwell on this topic but felt I had to address it, so here is my opinion and my only post on this topic.
There aren’t many women in leading roles in many sectors, but the numbers have improved and there are a variety of reasons which I am not going to go into in detail. As a woman CEO, I don’t feel disadvantaged because that’s not in my nature. I’m determined. Women who are in leadership roles pushed through all kinds of adversity to get there just like men who are in leadership roles. The world just isn’t fair and that does not just apply to women. We all need to take personal responsibility for our actions, work hard and treat everyone equally with compassion and respect – in business and in life.
What about in schools? The bottom line is that math and science education is not where we need it to be if we want any future engineers and innovators. Boys and girls need to be taught early on to embrace math, science and technology by making it fun and interesting and relevant to them. Yes, women role models are important as are male role models. Let’s make sure there are both.
Women are vitally important to most businesses as they influence much of what is spent by consumers. Women also represent a tremendous global resource in intellectual capital and human energy not to be wasted. I challenge everyone to look for and support diversity in what you do whether in age, gender, race, opinion, culture or OS. Learn from and benefit from each other’s strengths. We will all be collectively better off for it.
