Las Vegas—On the second full day of the Toshiba LEAD conference, one of the day’s programs kicked off with an hour-long address by Judith Spitz, the founding program director of the Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship in New York Initiative (the WiTNY Initiative) at Cornell Tech. Spitz packed the Monet conference room at the Bellagio Hotel to talk about developing female leaders in the digital age and setting the stage for future generations of women in technology.
Judith Spitz, former CIO of Verizon
Spitz spent the previous 16 years with Verizon, including the last 11 as its chief information officer. She also spoke to the inherent, subtle and not-so-subtle bias against women in leadership roles, referencing a cocktail party help for Verizon’s business units in which partners introduced themselves to Spitz’s husband, assuming he was the CIO. Spitz took the unintended slight in stride. She then related how the technology industry is severely lacking in female representation, both from a leadership perspective and in the overall number of tech positions currently being filled by women.
“How can we help women in this room and the next generation of women, experience a higher version of themselves to take an equal seat at the leadership table,” she said, stressing the importance of identifying the explicit and implicit things that happen every day that promote cultures of exclusion, rather than inclusion.
Leaders and Followers
She cited the work of Michael MacCoby, who wrote “The Leaders We Need: And What Makes Us Follow,” which offers an interesting perspective on the dynamics of the leadership and follow-ship relationship. The point made by MacCoby is what defines great leadership depends on the cultural context in which that leadership has to occur. Furthermore, what motivates people to follow leaders by some primitive things we learn from the first people we see as examples of leaders—our parents.
The leadership cues have been established throughout the decades, and Spitz illustrated how these relationships have evolved. The first leadership style is the “smartest guy in the room” leadership model (such as the master/apprentice dynamic). The “command and control” model sees information maintained at the top and disseminated on a need-to-know basis, a style popularized by the military-industrial complex that, she said, comes naturally to men.
The modern master collaborators model, where the power comes from having knowledge brokers share ideas and create new innovations, perhaps offers the greatest gateway for women in leadership. The knowledge/information, in this case, is not locked in at the top. In the digital age, where people create an atmosphere that is open and trusting, with a shared passion and vision, ripe with trial and error and is highly collaborative…this is a leadership model with which women seem to be most comfortable, according to Spitz.
One area of significance is providing women the opportunity to assume their leadership voice in a way that is most comfortable to them, she said. Authenticity is the single most important aspect of leadership because it engenders trust, which fosters collaboration and produces results.
“I have to believe you are who you say you are,” she said. “I have to believe that if I’m going to put my neck out there that you’re going to back me up, not throw me under the bus. It’s easy to see through that if you’re trying to position yourself as being the smartest person in the room when you’re not.”
Obstacles
Spitz pointed out an HP study that looked at the job application proclivities of men and women that explains, to an extent, significant differences in approach. Women will only apply for a job position if they meet 100 percent of the listed requirements, while men will push forward if they meet only 60 percent. Quoting Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, Spitz said that young women are brought up to strive for perfection, while boys are brought up to be brave.
“That is something that gets in our way,” Spitz said.
There are biases to be worked through, unfortunately. Power and likeability are positively correlated for men but negatively correlated for women. The more powerful a man becomes, the more he is liked by both men and women. However, the more powerful a woman grows, the less she is liked by men AND women. Nowhere is this more apparent than in politics, where Hillary Clinton—despite her experience—was extensively vilified for her lack of likeability during the 2016 presidential race. Similarly, actress Cynthia Nixon—who recently lost her primary bid to unseat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo—was criticized for running when she had little experience in politics. Yet, the same argument did not dissuade voters from selecting a president with no political background.
Statistics bear out the importance of installing women in leadership positions, according to Spitz, who said that studies show that companies with women in key executive roles tend to have a greater ROI, decreased bankruptcies and increased profit margins. However, only about 6 percent of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs, and only about 20 percent of corporate board seats are filled by women. Alarmingly, less than 3 percent of venture capital was awarded to companies founded by women.
The digital age has also fostered algorithm bias. Spitz pointed to a book written by Cathy O’Neil, “Weapons of Math Destruction,” that details how mathematical models intended to increase fairness and eliminate bias—for everything from student loans to job applications—is having the opposite of the intended effect. These models only perpetuate gender, race and income discrimination. In fact, bias can be found in search engine results as well; Harvard Professor Latanya Sweeney published a study that showed name searches yield results suggestive of an arrest record 85 percent of the time when a name most associated with African-Americans are searched. Name searches most associated with white people produced a suggestive arrest record only 25 percent of the time. Bias has indeed infiltrated analytics.
Empowering Women
Where do we go from here? Spitz recommends that employers don’t list 20 bullet items in their job listings to avoid a men-only trap. Steer clear of using masculine trait descriptors such as “ninja” or “dominate.” Listings that stress supportive environments and collaboration will elicit more responses from highly qualified female candidates. And if your firm is sponsoring a recruiting event, be mindful of the roles your female employees are playing at these events. Relegating them to HR functions or putting out refreshments will only perpetuate longstanding role identifications.
“We need to give these young women permission, explicitly, to step into their own leadership voices in a way that feels authentic,” Spitz concluded. “We need to expand the pipeline of women coming up in the technology arena.”
