Intelligent CIO North America Issue 07 | Page 46

CIO OPINION
The first time that I was put in charge of a team developing software , I had one male developer who actually outright said , ‘ I will not take direction from a woman ’.
technology , is that going to be something you talk to them about ? Everybody knows about doctors and lawyers and accountants – that ' s what we ' re going to push our children to be . Education doesn ' t do a good job of promoting it . It does a good job today of using it but promoting people to actually go do it is a completely different thing .
Would you agree that you ’ ve faced numerous challenges within the industry due to being a woman ?
The first time that I was put in charge of a team developing software , I had one male developer who actually outright said , ‘ I will not take direction from a woman ’. It ' s actually where I met my husband . I had to spend some time while we tried to figure out how to deal with that . I ' d actually have to go to my husband and say , ‘ Can you get him to do this thing because I don ' t know how to get him to do it ?’ It ' s very frustrating because it was inhibiting my ability to execute and get the software delivered , because I could not give him direction .
I think now , if someone said that , I would stop and ask them : ‘ Why is you need to do X coming from me , different than you need to do X coming from him ? What is the difference here because what I ' m seeing is that this is really your problem , not me ’.
It ' s not forceful but assertive in pointing out that this is a problem you have and we have to resolve it or we can ' t get our jobs done .
I would say don ' t back away from those positions – ask ‘ why ?’ Force someone who makes that assumption or that kind of statement to back it up .
What advice would you offer women who might be interested in pursuing a career in technology ? or you just need to vent . I think having a support network is very important – I can be very reactionary so if my first reaction is to yell or get very angry , that may not be the best approach , but you still need to get that out . You need a support network to help you work through that and figure out the best way to respond to that .
Be confident that you earned your place . My degrees are in computer science , so I have the education and the experience , I belong where I am and you need to tell yourself that and have people who can tell you that . Don ' t let anyone take that away from you .
Do you think that women are becoming more recognized as potential leaders in technology and if so , how ?
I think so . At least I see it at F5 . One of our significant leaders is in charge of an entire business group . She ' s very technical , she has degrees from MIT ( Massachusetts Institute of Technology ), she ' s been an analyst , she ' s got it all . She has both sides – business and technical – she brings it all together and she ' s been recognized for that . She ' s very young to be in that position and she ' s up there and she ' s leading and also very approachable .
It ' s not so much to me about being a CEO , I want to see technical women succeed because I want to see that technical acumen on display , because that ' s one of the things that can also help to attract younger girls .
How would you suggest promoting the need for more females in the industry ? Does F5 have any plans in place to do that ?
We have STEM education grants . We focus on supporting things like Girls Who Code . Internally , we have what we call employee inclusion groups . One of them is for women . Once a year , we have a gathering of women – we have some great women speakers that come in , we promote each other , we have a mentoring system that helps us really communicate internally and then promote externally across the industry . I see these kinds of initiatives .
CloudNOW ( Cloud Network of Women ) when it started , was really about promoting women in the cloud industry . I got involved because of my work with cloud .
Find a mentor , a friend , someone you can really express yourself with in the workplace . I have many female colleagues and sometimes they don ' t even work at the company , but they are female colleagues and so they understand . Sometimes you need advice
Over the years , it has morphed into focusing on supporting women , girls – for teenagers all the way up to young women in college with scholarships and mentorships . There are different meetups and events , so that they can ply their trade and learn from others . p
46 INTELLIGENTCIO NORTH AMERICA www . intelligentcio . com