Session: Building Women Tech Leaders in a Male-Driven World
The diversity gap among tech leadership roles is wider today than it was in 1984. A 2021 report found that 50% of women abandon tech careers by 35 and are leaving at a 45% higher rate than men. Companies say they want to help, but how much are they really doing to change representation?
It is a vicious cycle that was only fueled by COVID-19. The initial lack of representation leads to preconceived notions, such as, “Women aren’t suited for lead technical roles.” These biases stifle minority promotion consideration to leadership roles, restarting the cycle.
In this discussion, a female tech executive shares how they broke the cycle to successfully advance in their tech careers, and outline strategies that organizations can use to support the career acceleration of underrepresented leaders.
Bio
Nancy Wang is a General Manager at Amazon Web Services, where she leads P&L, product, engineering, and design for its data protection and governance businesses. Prior to Amazon, she led SaaS product development at Rubrik, the fastest-growing enterprise software unicorn, was the first female Product Manager at Google, and built healthdata.gov for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Passionate about addressing the representation gap in tech leadership roles, Nancy is the founder and CEO of Advancing Women in Tech, a global nonprofit with 16,000+ members spanning three continents that gives underrepresented individuals the resources they need for career advancement, including mentorship, skills-based training, and advocacy. Nancy is a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.S. in computer science and a M.S. in biotechnology.