Recognizing Female Talent in Tech, Welcome to the 21st Century, Mr. Nadella of Microsoft

The news came to me this morning from my husband who had received it in his ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education) daily email newsletter and he was shocked.

Yesterday, at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference, Satya Nadella, the Chief Executive of Microsoft,  suggested that women who do not ask for more money from their employers would be rewarded in the long run when their good work was recognized.

The New York Times had a great article on this "misspeaking"  complete with a video in which Dr. Maria Klawe, the President of Harvey Mudd College, and former Dean of Engineering at Princeton, completely disagrees with him. I have written about Dr. Klawe, since I am a big fan of hers and she has been very innovative in computing education and in breaking down barriers.

The Twittersphere lit up with Nadella's telling women not to ask for a raise but to wait for good karma - I kid you not! 

We are, last time that I checked, living in the 21st century, in which Lean In has become the mantra, Larry Summers is no longer President of Harvard University, but Drew Gilpin Faust is and she was the Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study when I was a Science Fellow there 2005-2006.  Coincidentally, in the same Times article, Claudia Goldin, who was also a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard my year,  is quoted.

Female talent in tech needs to be recognized and rewarded and having the right salary is one clear way in which to do this. Dr. Klawe regrets not speaking up when negotiating for her offer from Princeton and even more recently from Harvey Mudd College.

Another way to recognize females is through professional society awards.

For example, WORMS (Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences),  a forum of INFORMS, started the WORMS Award 9 years ago.  The Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS celebrates and recognizes a person who has contributed significantly to the advancement and recognition of women in the field of Operations Research and the Management Sciences (OR/MS).

Several of the WORMS Award recipients have also been  elected  INFORMS Fellows: Cynthia Barnhart of MIT, Brenda Dietrich of IBM, Kathy Stecke of UT Dallas, yours truly in 2013, and, this year, we have two out of the twelve 2014 INFORMS Fellows being female and also previous WORMS Award winners: Dr. Candi Yano of UC Berkeley and Dr. Radhika Kulkarni of SAS. WORMS has had outstanding officers, including Laura McLay, now at the University of Wisconsin Madison, who served as President, and has done great work in advocating for female tech professionals - thanks!

Perhaps Nadella should come to the INFORMS Conference in San Francisco and meet some truly successful, wonderful female and male pioneers in tech.

Nadella might learn something from Ed Lazowska, who is a Brown University alum, as am I. In an article in USA Today it was stated:  Hiring women and minorities isn't about window dressing. It actually makes it a better and more profitable company, says Ed Lazowska, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington-Seattle. "Engineering (particularly of software) is a hugely creative endeavor. Greater diversity — more points of view — yields a better result," he said.

Indeed, and they should be fairly compensated!

Lean In -- Inaugural Women of Isenberg Conference Was Terrific!

Although the weather this morning was frigid that did not stop about 150 of us from attending the 2014 Inaugural Women of Isenberg Conference, which took place at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst.

It was a terrific event and brought together undergrad and grad students, alums, faculty, and staff to hear from outstanding female professionals, including the Keynote Speaker, Susan C. Hammond.

Our Undergraduate Dean, Dr. Linda Shea, had opening remarks, which set the wonderful tone for the day.

There was also a panel this morning of 4 Target employees. Target was one of the sponsors.

I very much enjoyed the morning session on Lean In and it was great to see former students, one of whom, Christina Calvaneso, drove up this morning from NYC.

I took copious notes and enjoyed the sharing of professional stories and pearls of wisdom.

Some of my favorites:

• Define your own success;
• Don't undervalue yourself and others;
• Write thank you notes;
• Look for mentors and use them;
• Don't work in environments that violate your values;
• Have goals, take on hard challenges, be patient, and put in the work, and
• Build and surround yourself with a great team.

Also, students were told to take advantage of all the great clubs and leadership opportunities. This very much resonated with me since I have been serving as the Faculty Advisor to the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter for a decade now.

Below are some photos that I took at this very special conference:

The food was also great.

And, for those of you who may be wondering, there were a few males in attendance, including several husbands who came to support their spouses who gave talks.

Congratulations to the organizers and especially to the Isenberg Women in Business, which did a great job in the planning and execution of this event!