What A Year!

I spent the year as a CEO of a start-up in Cambridge, MA -- Top Ten Sources and what a year it was. Early in April we bought another company, Stylefeeder.com, and brought on it's excellent developer and creator, Phil Jacobs to add to our great technical bench. Stylefeeder is a great way to do your Christmas shopping, so go check it out.

It was exhausting to be in a ventured-backed, go-go-go start-up environment. I was learning so much so fast. My head was spinning. Maybe I'll go into many of the details ... but not today!

Ironically, I found all the good common sense I was born with as a woman and all the wisdom I've earned as a mom, all of it, came to my aid in deciding business strategies. In fact, I wondered how male CEO's even manage a company without the good gut (pelvic?) instincts all us women have. Poor guys!

I thought a lot about my Misbehaving Sisters here -- Meg Hourihan, Caterina Fake, Liz Lawley, Mary Hodder, all of you -- who have started companies and managed them through explosive sudden growth. I'll bet you all drew on your good female common sense again and again. When I'd get a little daunted and even down, I remembered you stars had pulled it off with grace and wisdom and it encouraged me to keep on going. I thank you all very much.

With the new year, I'm off to do some new ventures. As a fun thing in the meantime, I'm helping Terry Real write a book blog about his soon-to-be-published, The New Rules of Marriage. I hope you can all appreciate the irony of me -- a divorced, single mom -- writing on that subject. But Terry is fabulous. A shrink who thinks men are so behind the times in their emotional development that they are an evolutionary step behind us girls (my version of his thesis) and men undermine most marriages by not worshipping women nearly enough. Again, this is MY version of his brilliant book. You must read it!

And one last book plug or two. I loved Arianna's book, On Becoming Fearless, if you haven't read it ... don't hesitate. And I know you were as thrilled as me to get your hands on Maureen Dowd's paperback version of Are Men Necessary? Great girl books.

[Yes, this is a photo of me in my country & western witchy Halloween look, complete with spider on my shoulder. Yes, I went to work dressed like this.]

Posted by Halley Suitt at 11:56 AM in Organizations | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 01, 2005

supermarit

supermarit is a new Nordic network supporting women in game development:

Project SuperMarit aims to support and empower women’s position in the game industry and to encourage girls participation in the technoculture.

SuperMarit is for women in business, researchers, students, prospective developers and players to stimulate new encounters, co-operation and inspiration between the groups. By enabling this dialogue we create a synergy that encourages new games and business ideas to market. In this way we belive that SuperMarit can challenge the male domination in the field of games and technology.

(Thanks Satu!)

Posted by Foe at 04:01 AM in Gaming, Organizations | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 22, 2005

Anne Galloway on Google Girls

Anne has some fun with Google's well-intentioned but slightly off-key effort to recruit more women:

...Watch out for that non-intellectual appetite: when you're not attending tech-talks with the boys, you're likely to be eating the amazing food and putting on the dreaded Google 15 (pounds).  Thank goodness Google also has a gym so you can work that ass off! 

If you're just coming out of school, we'll make sure you have an easy transition!  You can work flexible hours, find a female mentor and Google's belief in the importance of work/life balance means you get laundromats - but guys, Don't steal the Undies!! - and excellent child care so the whole family can actually live at Google while you work...

So adventurous-women-geeks, if you're looking for a place that embodies the culture, philosophy and personality of the company's founders - and really, who can resist a man that understands high heels?! - then Go Google!

Posted by Foe at 06:27 AM in Organizations | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 09, 2005

Carly Leaving Hewlett-Packard

I wrote about Carly here a long while back.  I'll go dig up the link.

Today we read that she's leaving HP and I'm sorry about that.  I liked her.  I like her.  I think she probably had a helluva time as a woman CEO there.

I think the stuff she did integrating digital photos and printers and all that cool shit was revolutionary and the WSJ reported  "One of the few bright spots has been the company's printing-and-imaging division, which generates more than three-quarters of H-P's profits."

Needless to say, we're having a gender discussion about it over here, at Tom Peters site where I blogged about it this morning.

One of the commenters, a woman named M. R. Maguire wrote the greatest thing, and I want to blog it here.

Women + too much technology = frustration

Women + simple technology + efficiency + reasonable price = a home run for whichever company dreams it up first.

Posted by Halley Suitt at 11:42 AM in Organizations | Permalink | Comments (6)

January 13, 2005

worst. logo. ever.

Here in Rochester, one of the major organizations for women in technology is the AWC--the Association for Women in Computing. It's a wonderful group that provides educational opportunities, business networking, and annual awards for women in technology. In fact, I'll be doing a workshop for the local chapter soon on social computing topics.

But despite my admiration for their activities and their goals, I haven't joined the AWC. Why? Because every single time I look at their web site, the first thing I see is their logo.

It's awful, isn't it? A Barbie-doll-shaped woman, apparently unclothed, kneeling in front of a computer with her head bowed. It makes my skin crawl every time I look at it. What were they thinking?

I realize it's just a logo. But a logo is supposed to be a representation of key aspects of a company or organization. What does it say about the AWC that they've chosen this logo, and display it prominently on all of their materials?

Eventually I'll probably get over my distaste and join the organization, since it supports so many activities that I value. But I'm quite sure I won't grow to love the logo.

Posted by Liz Lawley at 10:15 PM in Organizations | Permalink | Comments (12)

October 03, 2004

i feel very alone

I'm in Seattle, because Microsoft's search team has invited me to be one of a group of 30 people providing advice and guidance on their new product(s). There was no information provided in advance about the other attendees, for privacy reasons. However, a few moments ago a bellman knocked on my door and hand-delivered a list of attendees.

(You know what's coming, don't you? You're wrong. It's worse than you think.)

Of 29 people listed as attending, I'm the only woman. Yes, that's right. The only one. They have people from all over the world--from Australia to South Africa--but they couldn't find a single other woman to include? On a topic like search engines, so near and dear to the hearts of librarians everywhere (the majority of whom, I might add, are women)?

This is really not a good start.

Posted by Liz Lawley at 07:47 PM in Organizations | Permalink | Comments (15)

October 02, 2004

Grace Hopper Celebration

Coming up soon: The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, October 6-9 in Chicago Illinois.

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2004 is the fifth in a series of conferences designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Presenters are leaders in their respective fields, representing industrial, academic and government communities. Leading researchers present their current work, while special sessions focus on the role of women in today's technology fields.

Past Grace Hopper Celebrations have resulted in collaborative proposals, networking and mentoring for junior women, and increased visibility for the contributions of women in computing. This year's theme, "Making History," marks the 10 year anniversary of the Grace Hopper Conference by recognizing the history makers - past, present, and future - in our community.

Posted by Caterina Fake at 05:51 PM in Organizations | Permalink

June 04, 2004

The Rise of the Mompreneurs

A recent article in Business Week The Rise of the Mompreneurs (free registration required), outlines the ways in which eBay has made it possible for many high-powered women to create businesses for themselves by selling online. The numbers are amazing. More than 430,000 people in the U.S. make a full or part-time living off of eBay, more employees than GE and Proctor & Gamble combined. The most successful businesses are grossing up to $1 million a month. And it turns out that 48% of these business people are women.

As we have seen time and time again, women are looking for a saner work-life balance, and eBay provides the opportunity to manage one's own business from home, on one's own hours, and according to one's own schedule. And some of the very things that "keep women down" in corporate environments, are a boon on eBay:

EBay, experts say, is a welcome, recession-proof option for many women, especially since it makes a virtue of the very traits that are often perceived as weaknesses in Corporate America. Research shows, for example, that women's detail-oriented strengths -- as well as their tendency to bear down and have lunch at their desks -- are impedients to advancement. On eBay, those so-called shortcomings become a competitive advantage, allowing women to provide the kind of high-touch customer service -- the Holy Grail among buyers -- that the big retailers just can't give.

Posted by Caterina Fake at 06:25 PM in Organizations | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 12, 2004

'Girlfriends in High Places'

Helen McCarthy of Demos, a British think-tank, has published a report on formal networks among professional women:

Girlfriends in High Places argues that professional networks can enhance individual career prospects while enabling women to work together to tackle workplace inequality. Women’s professional networks can provide the kind of confidence-building support which men are good at providing for each other through their informal networks.

Somewhat surprisingly (although perhaps not, given the specialised sample), 41% of women surveyed by Demos were or had been members of at least one women's network, and women's networks are a growing phenomenon. Helen connects their growth to "the changing nature of gender politics and the ways in which women construct their identities in relation to work, and in relation to each other", noting that while 81% of respondents rated the sex-specific nature of the women's networks as a positive influence on their decision to join, "few networks explicitly espouse feminist or equality goals". Furthermore, she observes that "networks are an organisational form which enables women to pursue both individual and collective strategies for change."

There's lots of interest here, so do read the full report. (Oh and while you're there, check out the recent discussion on the Demos blog about its own 'male domination', Females: Blogged Off. I love the way it trails off into comment spam - from prescription pills to debt relief, gambling and dating - almost in answer to its own question ;-)

Finally, the majority of non-networkers Helen surveyed simply weren't aware of any networks for them. Where are the networks for women in technology? Are you a member of one?

Posted by Foe at 08:13 AM in Organizations | Permalink | Comments (7)

April 21, 2004

The Invisible Woman: An Intel Simulation

Via Boing Boing, I found this IT management simulation game on the Intel site. It's an interesting idea; you're a manager who has to hire a team and complete a project using available resources. The problem (as Cory points out) is that in the first task--hiring a staff for your department--you can't hire a woman. They randomize a number of character aspects--hair, skin color, name, salary--but not gender.

This is what happens when women aren't involved on development teams--they become invisible, not only in the workplace, but also in the products that come from that workplace.

Posted by Liz Lawley at 11:12 AM in Organizations | Permalink | Comments (7)