How Google's Megan Smith Is Helping Women In Tech, One Story At A Time

How Google's Megan Smith Is Helping Women In Tech, One Story At A Time
MUNICH, GERMANY - JUNE 30: Megan Smith of Google speaks during the Digital Life Design women conference (DLDwomen) at Bavarian National Museum on June 30, 2011 in Munich, Germany. The conference features discussions, case studies and lectures and brings together an extraordinary group of international high-profile speakers and more than 500 participants from business, media, technology, society, health, education, politics and science. (Photo by Sascha Baumann/Getty Images)
MUNICH, GERMANY - JUNE 30: Megan Smith of Google speaks during the Digital Life Design women conference (DLDwomen) at Bavarian National Museum on June 30, 2011 in Munich, Germany. The conference features discussions, case studies and lectures and brings together an extraordinary group of international high-profile speakers and more than 500 participants from business, media, technology, society, health, education, politics and science. (Photo by Sascha Baumann/Getty Images)

FORTUNE – As innovative as Silicon Valley may be -- churning out fresh ideas, products, and services --when it comes to giving credit where it's due, women generally remain woefully under-recognized.

It's not overt sexism, so much as unconscious bias on the part of some people now, explains Megan Smith, vice president of Google X, the futuristic research lab developing not-so-secret projects like self-driving cars, Google Glass, the wearable computing device worn like eyewear, or Project Loon, a breathtakingly ambitious plan to bring 3G-level Internet connectivity to millions via thousands of solar-powered, high-pressure balloons navigating through Earth's stratosphere. Smith is one of over 50 women and men speaking at The MAKERS Conference this week, part of a larger initiative to tell women's stories.

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