In celebration of International Women’s Day and as a female tech CEO and founder, I felt it apt to address the topic of women in tech. It may sound silly to be discussing this in 2017 (I believe it’s ridiculous), but with the recent ongoing Uber fiasco on sexual harassment charges and many stories of gender discrimination and the ‘old boys club’ in the Valley, I wanted to take a moment to share my views and celebrate a few facts about women which are pretty awesome! (by the way, I appreciate men too)
- Women CEOs tend to perform 3x better than male counterparts
- Women are the ‘new techies’ and are critical drivers of growth across social networking, e-commerce and gaming with >58% of e-commerce dollars coming from women.
- There are increasing number of female venture capitalists and female-focused funds like Female Founders Fund and Aspect Ventures.
We still have a long way to go according to a recent World Economic Forum global gender gap report that it will take 170 years to reach gender parity at current rates. So I have 3 words of advice to our female readers as we work together to close the gender gap and maximize human potential for all of us:
- Keep racing ahead to be the ‘new techies’ and be the early adopters, creators and disruptors. Be the first to experience mobile micro-learning on Gnowbe (*smile*). Get a wearable. Be the first to download the latest new tech....
- Look out for each other. Let’s learn from the female-focused funds who are actively finding ways to support other women. Let’s not compete with one another (the world is abundant) and find ways to support each other.
- Continue to be your full and wonderful self. Bring your whole selves wherever you go - your rational, emotional and spiritual self. Don’t leave your heart and emotions at home. Use them to be more ‘human’ which will enable you to connect better with others and ultimately have more impact.
I’m grateful to be a woman. I’m proud of the many amazing things my female friends, CEOs and communities do each day. Let’s always celebrate women, not just on international women’s day!
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So-Young Kang is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. She is passionate about humanizing the world and writes, speaks, advises and builds businesses to raise human consciousness. Her latest venture is Gnowbe, a transformational learning platform that focuses on mindset and behavior change through mobile. She is also Catalyst of Awaken Group, a transformation design firm, Co-Founder of The Young Professionals’ Group, a global non-profit dedicated to helping young people achieve their professional dreams and author of Inside Out.