Knowing Your Value (25 page)

One reason for the lack of women in technology is that men with backgrounds in engineering, science, and math outnumber women four to one.

Studies by the Center for Women’s Business Research reveal that even when women
do
come up with the ideas in their dorm rooms, they are not very likely to get the capital needed to create these kinds of high-growth start-ups.

But that’s not the only reason women aren’t flocking to these sectors. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, has actually investigated why there aren’t more women in the technology field. She points out that “the percentage of women getting computer science degrees is going down. And people with computer science degrees make a lot more money than people without; they get the right industries and the right jobs. One of the reasons, it turns out, is that boys play video games
and girls don’t. And people who play video games start coding, because they want to write things for their video games.” Sandberg suggests that one of the steps we could take to get more women into computer science is to make more women-centric video games, and encourage little girls to play them.

This is counterintuitive advice. “I keep taking the computer away from my little girls,” I say.

“Give it back,” Sandberg says. “And when your daughters wonder why they get to play video games, tell them to thank me.”

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz agrees that educating our daughters will have an impact. “As parents, we let our daughters off the hook,” she says. “I believe more women are needed in the ranks of all industries because we do have different perspectives. One of the things we look at at Yahoo is, how do people interface with technology? What do women look for versus what men look for versus what different age groups look for? For instance, we know that when women look to a screen, they look more to the left or right, men to the lower left, kids across the top.” So the fact that designing a great user experience requires a combination of both technology and sociology should attract more women, she says, “because they actually believe they can add something more than just the raw algorithms, if you will.”

Bartz continues, “I think women in general need to encourage our grade-school girls to stay with science and math so that they have an option. If their last big math course is sixth-grade algebra, they’re never going to be an engineer.
Because by the time they think, ‘Hey, I want to go into computer science,’ guess what? There’s no way to catch up.”

Elizabeth Warren admits that she’s more concerned than ever about women catching up. “You know, here’s the funny part now. Because I’m older, I’m more experienced, right? I have a fancy chair at Harvard [and a special position at the White House], and I now find myself not furious on my own behalf, but furious on behalf of younger women, who fall into exactly the same traps I fell into.”

But others, like the FDIC’s Sheila Bair, are optimistic that things are changing: “I think one of the benefits of having women in senior positions is that we provide more models to younger women. They can see us sticking up for ourselves, taking credit for our ideas, demanding a seat at the table and an equal place to our male counterparts. I think being role models will help over time to change young women’s attitudes about themselves.”

How can we ensure that the next generation will have more female role models? Well, as I’ve said, we can only control what we can control. It’s up to me to control my own behavior, to take responsibility for my own actions. Not wait to be acknowledged, but to step up and own my success. I’ve earned it.

Tina Brown points out that “Assuming power is everything. You have to assume it, and I don’t think that women do. I think they wait to be asked.” She gives an example from a breakfast she attended recently. Representative Nancy Pelosi was a speaker, and one of the women in the audience asked how we can stop men from dismissing our potential
as leaders. “Nancy Pelosi said, ‘You can’t wait. You don’t wait. I didn’t ask anyone’s permission to run. I just ran.’ The answer is, the inmates have to seize the asylum. Ultimately, I think that the constant waiting for us to be part of the corporate power structure is not going to work—not going to happen. I think that’s why they need to start their own companies.”

I agree with Brown’s approach: the way to shift the balance is not to try to change existing workplace dynamics but to take matters into your own hands. She continues: “If you’re one woman in a room of seven men and the corporate structure is all male, you just feel you’re not getting anywhere. And you either leave or you fight like hell or you’re squashed. I think the best thing for women, frankly, when they find themselves in that situation, is to leave and start their own companies. I actually do think that women leading their own companies is where it’s at. They will build different corporate structures and different networks, and that’s going to be the healthy thing in the future.”

Encouraging women to take control of their own destinies is very much at the heart of this book. That’s why, when Valerie Jarrett asked me to moderate a panel at the recent Women’s Entrepreneurship Conference, I couldn’t say no, even though I was on deadline to finish this book.

The subject of the panel was Women-Owned Businesses in the 21st Century, and we were discussing the results of a recent report commissioned by the White House Council on Women and Girls about women entrepreneurs’ access to capital. The report shows, for example, that women are not given loans as often as men; when they are, the loans are smaller,
and although women start up as many businesses as men, they don’t last.

On the day of the conference I rushed off the set of
Morning Joe
, barely made it to the White House, and got up on stage, breathless, in front of 200 women who run both small and large businesses.

My opening remarks were, “It’s great to be here. I’m actually writing a book about knowing your value, and the results of this report are not only so important to us as women and where we’re headed, but it’s exactly what I’ve been writing about. We’re making great strides, but we need to do better. In fact, it was Jarrett who, a year ago, sitting in her office, told me that I shouldn’t just think about doing this book, that I
had
to do this book, and she inspired me to write it.

“And now a year later, by giving me the honor of being your moderator today, Jarrett has also inspired me to miss my deadline.” The whole room exploded with laughter, and then I said, “But we’re women. We’ll get it done, right?” And they all started to cheer.

This book, like my memoir,
All Things at Once,
can’t be wrapped up tidily at the end with a pretty bow. I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I don’t see myself featured on the cover of
Good Housekeeping
or
Fortune
magazine as the person who figured out how to have it all and do it all well. I’ve struggled in my public and private life to hit all the right notes, and I take full responsibility for my failings—as well as for my successes. And in terms of my earning what I’m worth, let’s just say I’m getting there. I do know this: if I’d written this book ten years ago and taken the advice of its interviewees to
heart, I’d be a multimillionaire today. Knowing the fair-market value of our contributions at work is a critically important piece of knowledge for today’s (and tomorrow’s) professional woman. Our families’ future depends on our knowing what we should be paid, and getting it. If we can’t quantify and communicate our value with confidence, the achievements of the tremendous women before us will have all been for nothing. Knowing our value and communicating it effectively is the next chapter in the story that began with the women’s rights movement. Let’s write it together, and let’s get it done.

agents

aggression

All Things at Once
(Brzezinski)

Anderson, Cameron

anger

apologies

Apple

Apprentice, The
(TV show)

assertiveness

authenticity

Autodesk

Babcock, Linda

backlash effect

Bair, Sheila

and difficulty of getting people to listen

emotionalism disdained by

on mentors

on motherhood

self-undervaluing by

subprime crisis and

on Wall Street crisis

Banfield, Ashleigh

Bartz, Carol

on asking for raises

as assertive

compensation package of

on compliments

on confidence

as confrontational

on education

on knowing salaries of peers

on quitting

self-undervaluing by

working mothers supported by

Behar, Joy

independence of

behavioral economics

Belkin, Lisa

Benard, Stephen

Bernanke, Ben

bitches, ambitious women perceived as

body language

Born, Brooksley

on being a working mother

on Wall Street crisis

on women helping women

Bowles, Hannah Riley

on author’s dispute with Griffin

on diverse teams

flirting disdained by

on gender disparity in negotiating

on gender disparity in networking

on raises

on role models

on sponsors

Brion, Sebastien

British Columbia, University of

Brown, Isabel

Brown, Sarah

Brown, Tina

on assuming power

female employee overlooked by

institutionalized preference for men disdained by

on networking

on rejection

on working mothers

Brzezinski, Ian

Brzezinski, Mark

Brzezinski, Mika:

apologizing of

in argument with manager

book deal of

career moves of

clothes of

contract of

daughters of

depression of

as desiring to be liked

expenses of

financial problems of

Griffin’s dispute with

hair clip incident of

Hillary Clinton’s campaign covered by

marriage of

Morning Joe
schedule of

negotiating skills of

as news reader

news show offered to

Paris Hilton incident and

pay of

quitting considered by

radio show of

raise sought by

“relentlessly pleasant” behavior and

Scarborough’s job offer to

self-undervaluing by

start at MSNBC

start on
Morning Joe

2008 election covered by

Brzezinski, Zbigniew

Bush, George W.

Carter, Jimmy

Catalyst

CBS News

Celebrity Roasts

Center for Women’s Business Research

children, raising of

Clinton, Bill

Clinton, Hillary

CNBC

collaboration

Comedy Central

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)

compliments

computer science

Condé Nast

confidence

Congress, U.S.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Correll, Shelley

credit card agreements

Curb Your Enthusiasm
(TV show)

Daley, Richard

David, Larry

Deutsch, Donny

on aggressiveness

on negotiations

on raises

Deutsche Telekom

diversity

Dobbins, Lucille

Dole, Elizabeth

Dole, Robert

double bind

drive

education

Effron, Mark

election of 2008

Ely, Robin

emotions, emotionalism

entitlement, sense of

Ephron, Nora

on favored nations

on quitting

self-undervaluing by

equal pay,
see
gender wage gap

Essman, Susie

on people skills

on sponsorship

Facebook

fear

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

flattery

flirting

Florio, Steve

Flynn, Frank

Fortune 500

Freeland, Chrystia

Friars Club

Gaston, Gina

Geist, Willie

Geithner, Tim

gender,
see
men; women

gender bias, subconscious

gender-neutrality

gender wage gap

General Electric

“Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?” (Correll, Benard, and Paik)

Google

Government Accountability Office (GAO)

Grand Hyatt Hotel

Greenspan, Alan

Griffin, Phil

author’s book project aided by

author’s dispute with

Scarborough’s arguments with

group-think

guilt

hair clip incident

Harvard University

Hegewisch, Ariane

Herbert, Joe

Hoffer, Jim

housework

Houston, University of

Huffington, Arianna