Why is the tech startup world still heavily dominated by men? And what can we do to get more women involved? Slides for a talk presented @ Startup Day at Kino Šiška (http://coworking.si/napovedujemo-startup-dan-v-kinu-siska/)

1. Zakaj v startup svetu
nikoli ni vrste pred
ženskim straniščem?
Alja Isaković

2. Me.
• Geek. And loving it.
• TSstartup, Mobitel Tehnik, E-šolstvo
• But...

3. It’s the year 2012, why
am I still one of the
few girls in the room?

4. “Fun” facts: TSstartup
signups demographics
Members by gender Teams by gender
91% 81% 17%
9%
3%
Male Female Male Mixed Female
Total sample: 202 people Total sample: 78 teams

5. Real world
Population by gender (Slovenia 2002)
51% 49%
Female Male

6. Why aren’t women
interested in tech?

7. Source: Women In Tech | MBA Online
Source: Why You Need To Speak To Women | LadyGeek
But we are.

8. Why don’t women
want to build tech?

9. Boys do it better?
1987: 42% of US software developers = women
ENIAC girls, 1945:
Frances Elizabeth "Betty" Snyder Holberton
Betty Jean Jennings Bartik
Kathleen "Kay" McNulty Mauchly Antonelli
Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer
Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum
Frances "Fran" Bilas Spence

10. It’s not cool being a geek.

11. It’s not cool being a geek.*
* Even Barbie does it.

12. We have good role models!
"If you can find something that you're really
passionate about, whether you're a man or a
woman comes a lot less into play.”
- Marissa Mayer, CEO @ Yahoo!

13. Tech myths
“One myth is you have to be technical to be
successful. You have to understand
technology but you don't have to be the person
who wrote every line of code. There is a broad
spectrum of roles for people.”
- Susan Wojcicki, SVP Product Management @ Google

14. How do startups
benefit by having
more women?

15. “May the odds be ever in your favor”
“We see that a company’s odds for success
increase with more female executives at the
VP and director levels.”
“For start-ups with five or more females,
61% were successful and only 39% failed.”
Source: Women at the Wheel; Do female executives drive start-up success?
Dow Jones VentureSource

16. “There’s little correlation between a group’s
collective intelligence and the IQs of its
individual members. But if a group
includes more women, its collective
intelligence rises.”
P.S.: It’s all about diversity and different perspectives
Source: Defend Your Research: What Makes a Team Smarter? More Women - Harvard Business Review

17. However ...
"... women systematically
underestimate their own abilities.”
“... men attribute their success to
themselves, and women attribute it to
other external factors. ”
- Sheryl Sandberg, COO @ Facebook

18. What can we do?

19. Spread the love!
>> Over 300 signups in just a couple of days! <<

20. What else can we do?
Let’s talk solutions!
@iAlja
iAlja.com
ialja@me.com