Author Interview: The role of persistence in breaking barriers for women in tech leadership
By Carly Driggers
We interviewed Pratima Rao Gluckman, software engineer and author of Nevertheless, She Persisted: True Stories of Women Leaders in Tech, and learned more about her inspiration behind the book and what she learned on the way.
Carly: What inspired you to become a writer, and specifically, to focus on the themes you explore in your work?
Pratima: My book, Nevertheless, She Persisted: True Stories of Women Leaders in Tech, shares the leadership stories of 19 women who have had significant leadership careers in the technology field. When I interviewed the women whose stories appeared, it was clear that one theme that was common to all their stories was persistence.
Pratima Rao Gluckman
It’s no secret that the tech world is male-dominated. When I got to senior management I felt stuck in my career. I looked at my management chain and there were no women in senior leadership positions. I looked at my peer management chain and there were no women there either. All through my career, I was told I was a change agent and that great things would happen in my career and I truly believed that. So I worked hard because I was raised with the idea of meritocracy and I thought hard work would take me where I wanted to go.
In 2016, when I was stuck in my career, a light bulb went off and I decided to look for senior women leaders as role models to basically get me unstuck. And since I was embarking on this journey for myself I thought it would be good to have other people like me to also embark on this journey. I wanted to give myself and other women and even men some insight into what helps women have significant leadership careers in technology. This is how the concept of a book was born.
Carly: Nevertheless, She Persisted delves into the lives of remarkable women. What motivated you to tell their stories? How did you go about researching and selecting which women to include?
Pratima: As I researched for my book, I encountered some disturbing facts. Each year, Fortune Magazine releases its Fortune 500 list, ranking major U.S. companies by their prior year's fiscal revenues. In 2014, there were 24 female CEOs on this list. That number dropped to 21 in 2016 but rose to 32 in 2017, increasing from 4.2 percent to 6.4 percent. Currently, there are about 47 women CEOs, which is 9.4 percent, but this number is still low.
In March 2014, Judith Warner, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, reported that at the current rate of change, equal representation of men and women at the top won't occur until 2085. This assumes a linear rate of change, which is an optimistic assumption. Given that women make up 50.8 percent of the U.S. population, it's disheartening that they represent less than 10 percent of top leaders in major companies. This means my daughter, born in 2013, will not see equal representation among leaders until her 70s, which broke my heart.
Motivated by this realization, I set out to create role models for young girls like my daughter. I wanted to expedite this process so she can see equal representation in her 20s or 30s, not just in her later years. With determination, I interviewed nineteen female executives to tell inspiring stories of how they achieved their successes, what influenced them during their childhoods, who their mentors were and what challenges they faced. A common theme that emerged was persistence. These women persisted despite gender bias, stereotype threats, imposter syndrome and negative societal messages. Their hopeful stories inspired me to write the book and persist in completing the project.
There are many lessons in my book, and here are a few key ones:
Persistence: The women I interviewed showed that the concept of a glass ceiling is very real for women in leadership careers in tech. They often have to break through multiple glass ceilings at different points in their careers. Each time one ceiling shatters, another often appears. Persistence is crucial to overcoming these barriers.
Imposter Syndrome: Many women, and even men, experience imposter syndrome, feeling they are not good enough and that they might be exposed as frauds. Most women I interviewed dealt with this but didn’t let it stop them. They kept going despite these feelings. Telling yourself that you can do it and not obsessing over feeling like a fraud is vital. Persistence in the face of imposter syndrome is essential.
Career Interventions: When a girl is born we put a pink hat on her. From day zero we send messages to our daughter that eventually puts her at risk for stereotype threat and imposter syndrome. This message that girls are not good at math impacts them more than society can fathom. Also, the curriculum taught in schools tends to make it harder for women to stay in STEM-related fields. Persistence is crucial here in a different way. Often, a woman won’t even know that she needs an intervention. This is where people need to have persistently high expectations for women in their lives. I heard great stories in the interview for my book where interventions made a difference. Sometimes the intervention came from a mom or even a stepmom. Sometimes the intervention came from a college professor. Just someone telling a young woman who is feeling like she doesn’t know what path her career should take to take a vocational aptitude test can make a difference.
That was the intervention that got Telle Whitney into the technology track in college and that made a crucial difference for her. Another woman was told that she really needed to figure out what she was passionate about before she got her business degree. And she did that. She got her computer science degree and some career experience before she got her MBA and that set her up for success. An intervention may come in the form of advice or even sarcasm. One woman was told, “I won’t tell you you are smart, but I know people dumber than you who have a PhD.” That was the nudge for Orna Berry to get her PhD. Orna eventually became the first female Chief Scientist in Israel and she became a pivotal individual in the startup ecosystem there.
The point is that interventions can be of crucial importance and can be helpful for women to stay in the tech pipeline. Again, having a persistent vision of a woman’s potential and being willing to offer the intervention when she gets off track is so important. So we need to intervene at every stage of a woman’s life starting from day zero. Every person should be empowered to do that for their daughter, sister, mother, student or girlfriend.
“I wanted to give myself and other women and even men some insight into what helps women have significant leadership careers in technology.”
Carly: Can you share any memorable experiences or encounters you had while researching and writing Nevertheless, She Persisted?
Pratima: One memorable experience was interviewing Telle Whitney, co-founder of the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) for Women in Computing, the world's largest women-in-tech conference. Whitney started the conference with Anita Borg, and the first event in 1994 had only 500 attendees. Today, the conference averages around 22,000 attendees. I vividly recall sitting in a café with Telle on a Friday afternoon, asking her questions for her chapter in my book. It felt like I was sitting in front of greatness, as Whitney has impacted so many lives through the GHC conferences.
During our conversation, I asked if she ever experienced imposter syndrome. She admitted that she did, saying she often felt she wasn't good enough and dealt with imposter syndrome every day. Her honesty gave me goosebumps. When I asked how she coped with it, she simply said she shows up every day. This was incredibly inspiring for me, especially as I was grappling with my own imposter syndrome while writing my book. Her words reinforced the importance of perseverance, reminding me that showing up every day was key to completing and publishing my book.
Carly: Many of the women you feature faced significant challenges and obstacles. What do you hope readers will take away from their stories?
Pratima: I want readers to take away two key messages. First, you have to persist. Many successful people don't take no for an answer; they believe in their vision and ignore detractors. They persist through challenges, and that's a crucial lesson I want readers to embrace.
Second, it takes a community to build successful women. The responsibility for women to succeed in the workplace shouldn't fall solely on their shoulders. It requires parents, teachers, executives, companies and the media to lean in and eliminate stereotypes about how women should be and act. We need male allies, women supporting women and sponsorship opportunities for women. Creating supportive communities at every stage of women's lives is essential for their success.
Carly: Your background includes a diverse range of experience, from engineering to entrepreneurship. How have these experiences influenced your writing?
Pratima: Looking at my career, I wasn't initially on a path to becoming an author. My education was in computer science, chemistry and instrumentation. Throughout my career, I have worked as a software engineer or software engineering leader. Nothing in my career path suggested that I would author a book. The most influential moment was when I realized that some women in tech do have successful careers as leaders and the secrets of their success were largely untold. I felt that these stories of how women become leaders needed to be heard and shared with others. My experience as a leader in tech, a woman of color, an immigrant, and, most importantly, a mother has profoundly influenced my writing.
Carly: Are there any new projects or books you're currently working on that you can share with us?
Pratima: Currently, my job keeps me very busy, but I have several ideas I would love to pursue when I have more time. I have contemplated writing more books, but there is a significant difference between wanting to write a book and having the persistence to see a project through from start to finish. I am very proud that I took the initiative to capture the great ideas found in Nevertheless She Persisted: True Stories of Women Leaders in Tech and saw that project through to completion. Being the author of this book has been a transformative experience for me, and it has also had a significant impact on many women and provided valuable insights for men. For now, I am focused on my career, but I occasionally speak at events for groups and companies interested in the ideas presented in my book.