When people picture the workforce behind all of the amazing modern-day gadgets and advent of the internet, most think of the bespectacled computer nerd, or the modern version of the stereotype, the “brogrammer,” with his stubbly facial hair and California casual dress. There is, of course, some truth to this image, and Silicon Valley is still overwhelmingly dominated by men. Women, however, have been part of the tech community since the very beginning, and there’s a growing number of them joining the workforce. The fresh ideas they bring with them could be just what the technology and information technology industries need: after all, fifty percent of the market is female.

Women Making Waves

Despite being severely underrepresented in the industry, there are a handful of women who are big players in the tech world who hold leadership positions. One example, according to a piece on CNN, Ursula Burns, the chair of Xerox, who worked her way up from an intern and who is now the first African American woman in history to take the company’s helm. She’s paying it forward, too: Burns is committed to promoting educational efforts for a younger generation of girls. Not convinced? Tech has also lauded Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, and Deborah Estrin, who runs the $40 million Center for Embedded Networked Sensing at UCLA. While they’re still far outnumbered by men, women are slowly climbing the ranks of big-name companies, becoming less of a rarity even in the most technical roles. [Read more…]