Celebrating 5 Women Who Are Changing the Face of Tech

The technology industry is infamous for being a male-dominated one. However, some women didn’t let this notion stop them — they broke all barriers to achieve some of the biggest accomplishments in the tech sector. On #WomensEqualityDay, Toolbox celebrates the achievements of these women.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Equality Day celebrated to commemorate the 19th Amendment that sanctioned American women the right to vote. It took several years of protests for the amendment to be finally adopted. After 100 years, is the struggle anywhere near its end? 

Not quite. 

Women all over the world still face several challenges, including pay disparity, unconscious bias, gender discrimination. And the same holds true for the tech sector. According to the Statista surveyOpens a new window , only 25% of GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft) are female employees. Another reportOpens a new window reveals that the ratio of men to women in engineering is 5:1. 

Despite tech companies employing diversity and inclusion strategies, the industry is still struggling with gender equality and diversity. The good news, however, is that women across the industry are not letting these disappointing figures stop them. Not only are some of these women the CXOs of some of the top companies, but they also continue to support and motivate other women in the industry.

This year, Toolbox handpicked 5 most powerful women in the tech industry who have proved themselves despite the gender-based discrimination. Let’s look at their journeys and accomplishments.

Michelle Zatlyn, COO, Cloudflare

Michelle ZatlynOpens a new window is the co-founder and COO of web infrastructure and website security company, Cloudflare. In 2009, Zatlyn launched the company with her Harvard Business School friends Matthew Prince and Lee Holloway. Her role requires her to manage and optimize client websites with better performance while ensuring zero security threats. 

Within ten years, Zatlyn pushed her startup to paramount levels and announced an initial public offering (IPO) in 2019. Zatlyn is an experienced public speaker and panelist. She was listed in Top Women to Watch in Technology by the Huffington Post in 2011, Forbes’ The World’s Top 50 Women in Tech 2018, and America’s Top 50 Women in Tech 2018. Before co-founding Cloudflare, Zatlyn has worked at Google and Toshiba.

Under her reins, the company has been lauded with awards including The Wall Street Journal Most Innovative Network & Internet Technology Company of 2011 and 2012; and 2012 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum.

A Word of Inspiration: “People don’t take opportunities because the timing is bad, the financial side insecure. Too many people are overanalyzing. Sometimes you just have to go for it.”

Cassie Kozyrkov, Chief Decision Scientist, Google

A renowned data scientist and statistician, Cassie KozyrkovOpens a new window is the chief decision scientist at Google. With degrees in economics, mathematical statistics, psychology, and neuroscience, Kozyrokv combines data science with behavioral science and guides Google to develop innovative and safe AI and data products. At Google, she bridges the gap between researchers and AI teams and has trained more than 17,000 Google employees to apply AI algorithms to business functions.

Kozyrkov aims to integrate psychology into data science to address the growing AI bias. 

Some of the key projects by Kozyrkov at Google are eliminating duplicate business listings on Google Maps, data science training, and statistical training course. Kozyrkov was selected as #1 Top Voice in Data Science and Analytics for 2019 by LinkedIn. She has also been featured on Forbes and Harvard Business Review. 

A Word of Inspiration: “Without scientists, it would be impractical to practice empiricist epistemology — everyone would have to, er, “science” for themselves. We’d all have to stick with rationalism or reinvent our own empirical wheels from scratch.”

Lisa Seacat DeLuca, Inventor, Director Emerging Solutions and Distinguished Engineer, IBM Watson IoT

Known as one of the most prolific female inventors at IBM, we have to celebrate Lisa’s accomplishments on #WomensEqualityDay. With a master’s degree in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas, LisaOpens a new window leads the incubation and deployment of the Digital Twin across IBM’s IoT offering suite.

LinkedIn recognized Lisa as #1 on their list of Top Voices in Technology in 2018 and one of the Top 15 Female Voices to Follow. In 2015, Lisa was named one of MIT’s 35 Innovators Under 35, LinkedIn’s NextWave of 10 Enterprise Technologists Under 35, one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, and IBM’s Working Mother of the Year for Working Mother Magazine. To date, she has over 800 patent applications out of which 400 have been granted.

Lisa also has two children’s books under her hat, A Robot Story and The Internet of Mysterious Things, to encourage more girls to pursue STEM careers. She is a renowned TED speaker and has shared diverse thoughts and visions on innovating IoT and motivating future generations to develop a passion for technology.

A Word of Inspiration: “All comes down to diversity. And the more diverse thought that we bring to the table, the better and the more diverse ideas that we bring as well.”

Wendy M. Pfeiffer, CIO, Nutanix

Another inspiring woman in the tech industry is Wendy M. PfeifferOpens a new window , CIO of Nutanix and board director at Qualys and SADA Systems. Wendy is a consumer tech enthusiast, and at Nutanix, she focuses on enterprise adoption of modern technologies. With strong business acumen and technical roles at GoPro, Cisco, and Yahoo!, as a board director, Wendy helps business leaders make informed and data-driven decisions. She is an active supporter of girls and women in tech and helps military veterans gain employment in the industry.

She was recognized as #1 in Enterprise Management 360’s list of Top 10 Tech CIO’s in 2018. The same year, she also made it to 2018 Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Women of Influence and Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology by National Diversity Council.

A Word of Inspiration: “I reminded myself that this process, as with my career as a whole, was not a race. Every experience along the way was going to be valuable to the final outcome, and I should take as much time as I needed to focus and find the right fit.”

Tracy Chou, CEO and Founder of Block Party

A promising entrepreneur, software engineer, and diversity and inclusion advocate, Tracy ChouOpens a new window is best known for urging tech companies to share workplace diversity reports. In 2013, Chou worked as a software engineer at Pinterest and wrote a viral Medium post asking companies to share workforce diversity data. Ever since, Chou has been the voice of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. She is the co-founder and founding advisor of Project Include that helps CEOs implement diversity and inclusion strategies. 

Chou is now CEO of Block Party, a startup that solves online harassment and abuses. Block Party is an app that aims to create a safe online experience. In 2014, she was named Forbes Tech 30 under 30, and in 2015 she was named under Fast Company 100 Most Creative People in Business. In 2017 she was recognized as MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators under 35.

A Word of Inspiration: “As much as I can help others get through or avoid those difficult stretches that I myself had to weather, I’d like to. As a bonus, the more women (and minorities) that enter and don’t leave the field, the better it all gets for everyone, including me!”

Today’s technology leaders need to invest in offering exciting opportunities to women entering the industry. If they take the efforts to employ just as many women as men, the resulting benefits are bound to spread far and beyond.

What does the Women’s Equality Day mean to you? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!