6 leading women in technology that you should know
1 March 2023
Alicia Fontecha. IMMUNE Technology Institute
We never see them; they have lived, and still live, in the shadow of their male peers, but women have always occupied key roles in research, entrepreneurship and technological work. From IMMUNE Technology Instituteand on the occasion of the International Women's Daywe wanted to to give visibility to the role of women in the technology sector and take a tour of several of the most important female personalities who have changed (and are changing) the world with their technological contributions.
Over the years, the role of women in society has become more relevant in all areas. However, there are still certain sectors where there is still a There is a great deal of work to be done in order to achieve gender equality. One of these is the technology sector.
If we ask the numbers, they confirm the situation. According to the Tech Cities 2022The offer of job positions in 2021 ended with more than 210,000 opportunitiesHowever, only one 30% of posts are held by womena 18% if we are talking about European companies.
This shows us that there is demand, a lot of demand. As of today, there are four times more offers in the ICT sector than talent availableAccording to Adigital and BCG in their report ".Digital Economy in Spain". If we focus on our country, at least the following are needed 120,000 women with a specialised professional profile in tech (Tech Cities 2022 report). And if we focus on the proportion of these professionals in today's fastest-growing workforces, their presence is even lower: in DevOps, they only represent a mere 8% and Cloud a 15%.
On wages... Conditions are not improving. According to Human Datathon (2022), women are experiencing an increase of 23% wage gapregardless of their studies or position within the organisation.
You may be wondering... What's going on?
Some of the main reasons for the lack of female tech talent is because lo girls do not have female role models and to the poor technology education. This lack has led to a false belief among young girls from an early age that STEM subjects are difficult and not suitable for them. This is reflected in the report "X-ray of the gender gap in STEAM training". of the Ministry of Education, which reports that only one 25% of those who chose to study technology careers are female. However, the loss of interest starts much earlier; it usually begins at the age of eight and becomes more pronounced at the age of fifteen.
The lack of attention to STEM careers among women may lead to employment problems in the not too distant future:
Firstly, the education system will not be able to produce enough graduates. in this sector. At present, it is determined that a 10% of vacancies not filled due to a lack of training. In addition, experts state that the technology gap could widen because young women are still not trained in one of the disciplines that will generate the largest number of jobs in the coming years. According to the report prepared by Adigital and BCG, for 2035 approximately one 30% of the jobs will be newly created. and technology-related and a 58% will demand new capacities.
Everyone knows the most important technology entrepreneurs and engineers, at least, of the last few decades: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs... And an endless list of names that we can think of without much effort, but... And if we ask you about women? I'm sure you will find the answer more complicated, because, as we have already mentioned, the lack of female role models in this sector, although they have always been present.
History has seen brave women who, through their work and dedication, broke down the barriers that made it difficult for them to enter a world that has been considered for men. Scientists, teachers, programmers, engineers... In this post, we invite you to meet women who have made, and are currently making, great contributions to the technological world:
Ada Lovelace was born on 10 December 1815 in London, United Kingdom. She is considered the mother of programming for creating the first algorithm in history.
During his studies he interned for Charles Babbage, inventor of the digital computer. In 1845, through Babbage's powerful invention, he designed a language with which algorithms could be described, thus creating the first programming language.
As a curiosity, she had to sign all her works with the initials A.A.L. for fear of censorship for being a woman.
Spanish women have also made their contribution to technological development. We would like to highlight the work of Ángela Ruiz Robles, teacher, educator and inventor who was born on 28 March 1895 in León.
His innovative and transformational approach to teaching In 1949, he created the so-called "mechanical, electrical and air-pressure procedure for reading books". With this invention, he succeeded in bringing together a maximum of knowledge with a minimum of effort by means of transparent sheets that were illuminated by a push button. In this book he also modestly depicted the first hypertext link. Similarly, in 1962 he patented his Encyclopaedia Mecanica, considered to be the antecedent of the e-book.
Hedy Lamarr was born on 9 November 1914 in Vienna, Austria. This name may ring a bell, but not because of her performance in technology, but in film. In fact, she has always been remembered for being the first woman to appear nude in a Hollywood film. However, her most important role was in the field of ICT, being one of the inventors of the first version of the spread spectrum.
In 1941, in the middle of World War II, Lamarr wanted to use his knowledge to help the Allies defeat the Germans in the so-called "Blitzkrieg". To this end, he devised the spread spectrum, an invention that allowed him to to carry out long-distance wireless communications which are currently used to run such important systems as the WI-FI, GPS and Bluetooth. Also, he invented a system that was capable of remotely control the rudders of the torpedoes.
Margaret Hamilton was born on 17 August 1936 in Indiana, USA. She was active in the Apollo XI mission and is considered the first female software engineer because it laid the foundations for the subject.
The most important milestone in Margaret's career was when she led the so-called "Apollo Programme" where she was in charge, along with her team, of the design the ship's software. Thanks to his contribution, he prevented the mission from failing because the software he devised was programmed to prevent errors and prioritise systems critical to the operation of the spacecraft, thus avoiding an overload and successfully completing the mission; Apollo XI landed on the Moon and three men took centre stage: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin.
Radia Perlman was born on 18 December 1951 in Virginia, USA. She is a network engineer, software developer and security expert, recognised as a "The mother of the internet".
Perlman's main contribution to the technology was the creation of the Spanning Tree protocol (Spanning Tree), one of the most important components of the functioning of the internet. She was also one of the first to take an interest in teaching programming to children.
He worked at Intel where he was awarded more than 47 patents.
Susan Wojcicki was born on 5 July 1968 in Santa Monica, USA. She is a businesswoman who has had a pivotal role in the founding of Google and a a strong advocate for women in the technology sector.
Like all great technology companies, their beginnings are in a good garage, and Google had to be based on this cliché. However, few people know that that garage belonged to Susan Wojcicki. Despite not having a background in technology, she has always been interested in it and has been able to see the potential of this sector.
It has been a key person in Google's success taking charge for 12 years of such important platforms as Google Ads, Google Analytics o Google Images, among others. In addition, when the company was barely a year old, Susan convinced Page and Brian, founders of Google, to acquire YouTube. Today is CEO of Youtube and was named by the magazine Time as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world.
The education in STEM subjectsto children, adolescents and young people is essential. Both public and private institutions face the great challenge of discovering, attracting and promoting female talent and making them see that They, too, can change the world.