Women’s History Month. The Women in Tech: Who Are They and What We Know About Them?

Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos… We bet you have heard about these tech figures. But what about female tech leaders? Many of us would likely struggle to name three influential tech women. The number of women in IT has always been significantly lower than that of men. However, that’s not because women don’t have an impact on the tech industry. This article aims to shed light on famous women in tech.

Let’s start with statistics

If we refer to Statista's global software developer survey in 2022, we can see that more than 91.88% of software developers identified as male (fewer than 6% identified as female). However, in 2023, the situation changed quite a lot — approximately 75% of the developers identified as male, while female developers' share amounted to around 23%.

Source: Statista

We can see a serious increase over the previous year, and we hope this tendency won’t change.

The top 10 list of most influential women in tech

There are several women in senior roles in well-known tech companies, and below, we have compiled a list of the most famous of them. And our heroines further confirm this thought. Sheryl is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Meta who also serves on Meta’s board of directors. She was among the first women to take an executive role in Silicon Valley. Before Meta, Sheryl Sandberg was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google. In her interview with CNN, Sheryl shared her secret of success: “I strongly believe in ruthless prioritization". Follow on Twitter Follow on LinkedIn Amy Hood is the Executive Vice President (EVP) and the first female Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in Microsoft's history. She joined the tech giant in 2002 and made a significant contribution to its development. Amy led over 50 deals, including the $7.5 billion acquisition of GitHub in 2018. In 2023, she was ranked #23 in the Forbes list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women. Safra Catz joined Oracle in 1991 and became a member of the company’s board of directors in 2001. Since then, she held various roles at Oracle. Catz stepped up as co-CEO of Oracle in 2014, and under her leadership, the company has transformed into a powerful cloud computing company. Besides Oracle, Catz is an active board of directors member for several organizations, including The Walt Disney Company. She is also known for her advocacy for female roles in leadership. In 2023, Safra Catz took the #17 position in the Forbes list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women. Susan Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 when the company was in start-up mode. Initially, she worked as the marketing manager and then became senior vice president of Advertising and Commerce. Later, she proposed that Google buy YouTube and even handled the $1.65 billion purchase. She became CEO of YouTube in 2014. Wojcicki announced her departure in 2023. Follow on Twitter Follow on LinkedIn Alvina Antar is the Chief Information Officer at Okta. She previously worked at Zuora, driving its business growth from $30M to $300M. Beyond her role, Alvina is actively engaged in different initiatives—she is also a co-founder of the Silicon Valley CIO Women’s Network and contributes to the Girls in Tech Board of Directors. Additionally, she actively advocates for gender equality in tech. Follow on Twitter Follow on LinkedIn Elizabeth Churchill is the Director of User Experience at Google. She is known for her deep expertise in human-computer interaction, social media, and digital design. Before Google, Elizabeth held various roles at tech giants like Yahoo and eBay. Churchill also serves as the vice president of the Association of Computing Machinery. Caitlin Halferty leads Ericsson's Global Chief Data Office. Formerly, she was a founding member of IBM's inaugural Global Chief Data Office, where she spearheaded the launch of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and collaborated with top industry companies worldwide. With a serious background in data science, Caitlin conducted different research on emerging technology trends for innovative leaders. Follow on LinkedIn Anu Bharadwaj is the President of Atlassian who joined the company in 2024 and initially served as the Head of Product for Jira. Yet, her career began at Microsoft, where she worked as a Product Manager, launching different products for Microsoft Visual Studio. “I didn’t start as a Product Manager. Microsoft hired me straight out of school, and my first job was building video games as a developer.” — Anu Bharadwaj. Follow on Twitter Follow on LinkedIn Kimberly Bryant is the Founder and CEO of Black Girls CODE, a non-profit organization that introduces girls of color (ages 7-17) to technology and computer programming. She started her company in 2011 with the mission to involve more African-American females in technology. Before tech, she worked in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. She says, “Black Girls CODE was not on my radar. At first, I just wanted to see the representation that I didn’t see in the startup arena, and my daughter was in middle school with a big computer science interest at the time. Every time I put her in a class to learn more about it, there were no girls. That was shocking to me. That is what planted that seed for me.” Follow on LinkedIn Reshma Saujani has a mission similar to Kimberly Bryant's. She founded Girls Who Code, an organization that works to close the gender gap in tech by educating girls with technical skills. Girls Who Code has already grown into a global movement, inspiring and educating thousands of girls worldwide. In 2017, Saujani also published a book called Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World. Interestingly, Saujani was the first Indian American woman to run for U.S. Congress.

Conclusion

These ten women show the invaluable contributions they are making in technology. They not only showcase their exceptional skills and leadership but also underscore the critical role females play in shaping the future of technology. Furthermore, this spotlight on influential women in tech emphasizes the significance of encouraging and empowering more women to pursue careers in IT. Learning to code becomes not just a skill but a gateway to breaking barriers and bridging gender gaps. Let’s do it.