The most prominent women in the world of technology

Only 26% of computing-related jobs are held by women. Given the fact that IT spending worldwide is projected to total $3.8 trillion in 2021, women are misrepresented in a field where the potential to grow and advance in one's career is one of the highest.

Girls are being held off STEM following stereotypes according to which that’s not something women do. Gladly, there are numerous examples around the world that prove the opposite. We need to talk more about such women to inspire the rest to break through the stereotypes in order to give a shot at STEM and pursue tech careers.

Women who made history

Behind the first general-purpose computer called the ENIAC there were six female programmers: Jean Bartik, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum, Kay McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Frances Spence, and Frances Elizabeth "Betty" Holberton.

Despite their groundbreaking work, the Army never released the names of the women who worked on the ENIAC, and they were largely forgotten until Kathy Kleiman discovered their story in 1985.

Search engines as we know them today were built on the concept of inverse document frequency, which was developed back in 1972 by Karen Spärck Jones, a professor at Cambridge Computer Laboratory.

The Spanning Tree Protocol enabled the development of modern networking. And it was an invention made by Radia Perlman. She is often called "the Mother of the Internet".

American women who are shaping the world of tech from the front seat today

● Sheryl Kara Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook and the founder of LeanIn.Org. In June 2012, she was elected to Facebook's Board of Directors, becoming the first woman to serve on its board. She has been listed among the most influential people in such publications as Times and Forbes.

● Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube. Susan was with Google from the start. In fact, the world’s largest search engine was operated from her garage in the early years. In 1999, she became Google’s first marketing manager and later led the company's online advertising business. Later on, she was responsible for Google’s original video service, but, after seeing YouTube’s success, proposed the acquisition of YouTube and became its CEO in 2014.

● Virginia "Ginni" Rometty, CEO of IBM. She was also the president and CEO of IBM, becoming the first woman to head the company. Ginni joined IBM as a systems engineer and climbed up the corporate ladder, heading global sales, marketing, and strategy.

● Margaret Whitman, CEO of Quibi. She also serves on the boards of Procter & Gamble and Dropbox. Previously, she was the president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, as well as president and CEO of eBay. Alongside her business career, she is also involved in politics. Whitman was a senior member of Mitt Romney's presidential campaigns and ran for governor of California. Interestingly, in 2008, Whitman was cited by The New York Times as among the women most likely to become the first female president of the United States.

● Kerinne Browne, Senior Cybersecurity Program Manager at Microsoft. She has over 10 years of experience in Information Technology and has held numerous roles throughout her career such as field engineer, account manager, and sales engineer.

A broken rung

While a recent study by McKinsey & Company shows signs that the glass ceiling is cracking, the progress is constrained by a “broken rung”. According to statistics, women face the biggest challenges at the first step up to a manager. For every 100 men promoted and hired to a managerial position there are only 72 women. This means that more and more women get stuck at the entry level, while men advance to managers.

The inspiring examples help to combat misconceptions about tech and encourage women to be more determined in their pursuit of a career. Corporations reluctant to be more inclusive simply push themselves to the outskirts of talent acquisition and development.