Session: Parenting for the Women in Tech
If you think that being a woman in the tech industry is tough, then being a mom in the tech industry is tougher and extremely challenging. The representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics(STEM) fields drops significantly at the mid-career level and one of the major reasons is that women can feel overwhelmed with managing their careers along with their family. The struggle is real and at every age of the child, women face different challenges. A study by InnovateHer[1] found that 50% of women in tech leave their jobs before the age of 35, which is quite alarming.
This panel will discuss how to handle burnout and thrive in the tech industry after being a mom. The talk will shed light on how these successful women are managing their stressful tech careers which require support in several time zones, along with managing demanding kids. It will provide tips to overcome burnout and create a support system for yourself.
[1] - InnovateHer - https://www.innovateher.co.uk/
Bio
Shweta Behere
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Shweta Behere is a Senior Engineering Manager at Workday, overseeing the development of the multi-cloud platform. With a career spanning over 17 years in the technical field, her focus has been on the public cloud, storage, and virtualization. Throughout her journey, she has made substantial technical contributions, resulting in numerous patents and publications, showcasing her solid expertise in these domains. She enjoys solving challenging technical problems, encouraging innovation, and guiding high-performing teams to successful project completion. She has a computer science educational background with a master's degree in computer science from Colorado State University and a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from Pune University.
Apart from her professional achievements, she is a strong advocate for empowering women to enter technical fields and establish fulfilling careers.
She will be moderating this panel discussion and provide valuable insights on how to navigate parenting with your technical career.
Mamta Suri
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Mamta Suri is an accomplished leader, with over 20 years of experience managing global teams across diverse industries. With a background in Computer Science and Molecular Biology from UCSC and Carnegie Mellon University, Mamta has honed her leadership skills in both small startups and Fortune 500 companies, spanning industries from Medical Instruments to SaaS. She brings a unique blend of innovation and strategic vision to her role, consistently driving her teams to success and productivity. As a proud working mother, Mamta draws inspiration from parenthood, applying valuable lessons to her leadership style and vice versa.
Kanchana Padmanabhan
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Kanchana Padmanabhan currently serves as the Director of Data at Homebase, where she oversees teams in data engineering, data science, machine learning, and data platforms. Previously, she held the role of VP of Engineering and Product at Array Insights, a healthcare startup formerly known as SecureAI Labs. With a wealth of leadership experience across retail, supply chain, social media, and healthcare, Kanchana earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from NC State University. She actively contributes to academia through teaching roles at the Rotman Business School, University of Toronto, and the Smith School of Business, Queen's University. Kanchana is deeply committed to developing impactful and product-focused machine learning solutions.