Gloria Steinem Issues Call to Women in Technology

Speakers cite need for acceptance at crowded conference

By Mary Margaret Peterson

The numbers spoke loud and clear last month when the first annual Women in High Technology Conference packed more than 1,200 attendees into the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. The crowd of mostly executives and software engineers more than doubled the expectations of conference organizers.

The conference was sponsored by WITI, the International Network of Women in Technology based in Sherman Oaks, CA. It was cosponsored by more than 45 high-technology companies, including Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Adobe Systems, Microsoft, and Intel. Intel, in fact, sent 140 women from 80 sites around the world to attend the conference.

Attendees were likely drawn, at least in part, by the decidedly low-tech but high-profile keynoter, feminist speaker and writer, Gloria Steinem. At a luncheon on the opening day of the conference, Steinem reminded the crowded auditorium that women have been leaders in technology since the earliest times. She cited the "incredibly sophisticated and nuanced art of healing" practiced by women over the ages, as just one example, attributing the first use of penicillin to a woman.

But her message went beyond the implications of women in technology. In short, it was nothing less than a call to action. Steinem urged women in business, whether high technology or not, to bond, form groups, network-and ultimately, to counteract the "overtly hierarchical, racist, and sexist" backlash that exists in much of the business world today. "Every immigrant group in the history of this nation has had to start its own businesses," she told a group of journalists. "Women are the only "immigrant" group that don't have a country, a neighborhood, or even a bar. What we need to have is a psychic country."

Ultimately, networking and building business savvy, whether to start a company or to work within an existing one, is what this conference was all about. Session topics ranged from telecommuting, negotiating, and opportunities for women business owners, to image building and international business etiquette. But the underlying theme that drove it all was the need for women in business to share their stories, celebrate their successes, and to develop winning strategies.

Throughout the conference much talk was given to the different styles men and women bring to the workplace and the need for mutual acceptance of the benefits of both. Conference organizer and WITI executive director Carolyn Leighton said, "Lots of companies give lip service to attracting women. But in order to do so, they not only need to have good policies supporting the family, and supporting women, but also a commitment to a feedback system that accepts that the way women do things will be different from the way men do."

Steinem added, "Who would want only one kind of cuisine? The more diversity in the workplace, the more flavors. A company that works that way becomes a joy to work in."

Although much of the conference was devoted to women working side by side with men in the corporate environment, a strong undercurrent of women's potential as business owners was clear. "If we're going to have the powerful women we need, we have to have women in jobs they can't be fired from," Steinem said, urging women who are so inclined to start their own businesses. "We need to be both inside and outside." Steinem repeatedly referred to herself as an "outsider who has chosen a different path."

When asked where her reserves come from, Steinem replied, "It's been easier for me because I have been on the outside. I have had a magazine staff." Steinem founded Ms. magazine more than two decades ago.

Overall, the conference struck an upbeat tone-fitting for a group whose stated purpose is to advance the cause and visibility of women in technical fields. But Leighton, a consultant specializing in technology and research, who started WITI in 1989 after reading an article that said three percent of American business executives are women, doesn't plan to stop there. She is in the process of compiling a database of women executives who are qualified for positions in technology companies as CEO and other executive roles. She also plans to build a World-Wide Web site of women's resources, and establish a news bureau to communicate more effectively on women in technology to the news media.

Although this is WITI's first foray into sponsoring a conference for women in technology, it won't be the last. Next year's conference is already scheduled for June 4-6 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. If the quality and quantity of attendance at the 1995 conference is any indication, seats will be scarce.