Women in High-Tech
I recently read an article in the New York Times about women in the high-tech industry, particularly Silicon Valley. It was quite discouraging information, but it does give some insight into why the U.S. is falling so far behind the rest of the world in innovation and information sciences.
Here are some highlights from the article:
- Women own 40 percent of private businesses in the U.S., but create only 8 percent of venture-backed tech startups.
- Just 14 percent of Venture Capitalists are women.
- Women outnumber men at elite colleges, law schools, medical schools, and the overall workforce, but are noticeably scarce in the high-tech world.
- Only 18 percent of college students graduating with computer science degrees in 2008 were women—down from 37 percent in 1985.
- Only 1 percent of girls taking the SAT in 2009 said they wanted to major in computer or information sciences.
- Mixed-gender teams have produced technology patents that are cited 26 percent to 42 percent more often than the norm.
- Women have few role models in high-tech.
These are just a few of the key points presented in this illuminating article. I highly recommend the article, because it speaks directly to our country’s decline in innovation and loss of high-tech leadership.
The title of the article is Out of the Loop in Silicon Valley, by Claire Cain Miller. I included a link here.
Innovation 101
“There is an almost inevitable institutional drift toward Centralization & Complex Processes & Hierarchy…at the expense of Innovation & Adaptation.”
—-Tom Peters
It is this “…at the expense of Innovation & Adaptation” that has plunged the U.S. down the list of innovative nations. If what Tom says is true–and I believe it is–then it is definitely up to small businesses to be the innovators who brings the U.S. (or any country) back up the list.
Typically, when someone thinks “Innovation,” they immediately think of electronic gadgets, the Internet, social media, Silicon Valley, or any new invention that may change our social status or the future of mankind. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, those things mentioned certainly are innovations, but they are not what innovation is all about. Here is Webster’s definition of Innovation: “the introduction of something new: a new idea, method, or device.”
Innovation can, and should be, everywhere…in our businesses, in government, and in society in general. Here is an example of a basic form of innovation:
Justin Esch and Dave Lefkow were having drinks with friends when they came up with the idea for “Bacon Salt.” They quit their successful jobs at a Seattle technology company and set out to perfect their idea. Working out of Esch’s garage, with zero marketing budget, they sold “Bacon Salt” products to 25 states and 12 different countries, and are expanding worldwide as rapidly as they can.
They also continue to innovate by expanding their “Bacon Salt” concept to other products. Their current hot seller on their web site is bacon flavored lip balm…they’ve sold 10,000, and many sales are to repeat customers.
Esch and Lefkow are a worldwide phenomenon, and last year raked in $1.4 million in profit–just from a combining bacon and salt. Not what one would call “high tech.”
(Justin and Dave will appear on Oprah Friday April 24).
How does the U.S. (or any country) develop and promote a culture of creative thinking–Innovation–in jobs; in society; and in the lives of their citizens? It is going to take changes in education, in family values, in governments, and in individual entrepreneurs. Can we do it?
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