According to The Business Insider.
Schematic diagram. (Photo credit: TheDigitalArtist/Pixabay/with domain CC0)
Many companies do not meet the goal of gender equality, but some women are leading technology companies.
Spain’s Business Insider analyzed the biographies of 18 female leaders and found some common traits.
From diversity experts to graduate degrees to working with artificial intelligence (AI), this is what they have in common.
Thanks to women who have fought institutionalized sexism for decades, we now have many female role models in business and entrepreneurial leadership roles.
Yet there is still a long way to go to truly break down this invisible barrier.
In 2018, the average female full-Time worker earned just 81.6 cents on the dollar for a male worker.
According to The Guardian, the number of women directors at FTSE 100 companies has increased by 50 percent in the last five years, with women now serving as one-fifth of board directors.
In Spain, 14 of the 35 IBEX companies have fallen short of their target of 30% women on their boards and only 5% of funding rounds between 2016 and 2020 are led by women.
Currently, in Spain, many women lead technology companies such as Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Fujitsu, while in Netflix (Netflix) or Siemens, other women play a major role.
Business Insider Spain analyzed the biographies of 18 women in these leadership positions to clarify what they have in common, from where they went to college and their master’s degrees to the languages they speak.
1 Choosing a degree
Many of the Spanish women in leadership positions in technology companies studied science (STEM) subjects at university.
Ángeles Delgado, president of Fujitsu Spain, studied economics at Complutense University in Madrid.
Cristina Ruiz, General IT Manager of Indra Technologies Spain, studied Economics and Business at the same university, and Marta Martínez, General Manager of IBM in the EMEA region (for Europe, Middle East and Africa combined), studied Chemistry there.
In fact, many of the women on our list have studied science and technology at public universities in Madrid, including Complutense University of Madrid, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. They include Nerea Torres of Siemens, RosaDíaz of the National Institute of Cybersecurity, Julia Bernal of Red Hat and MaríaFerreras of Netflix.
There are those who study outside Madrid there is Irene Cano, head of Facebook Iberia, who chose the University of Oviedo, and Fuencisla Clemares, President of Google Spain and Portugal, who studies at the University of Navarra ( University of Navarra.
Among those who studied at the private university were Bárbara Navarro, head of government affairs and public policy at Google Asia-Pacific, and Pilar López, country general manager at Microsoft. Both attended Comillas University with Entradas.com CEO Susana Voces.
Meanwhile, Koro Castellano, director of Amazon Prime Video in Spain, and Maria Galania, vice president of professional services for the EMEA region at Adobe, both attended the University of São Paulo.
2 Pursuing a master’s degree
Whether it’s a master’s degree or a PhD, many women leaders have one or more graduate degrees.
Google’s Klemmers has an MBA, while Helena Herrero, general manager of Hewlett-Packard Southern Europe, graduated from an advanced management program. Meanwhile, Suzanne Forsyth earned her master’s degree from Harvard University Extension School, and Maria Jalana earned her MBA from Harvard Business School.
3 They are multilingual
All of the leaders are fluent in English and Spanish, reflecting the international nature of their roles, and many of them speak other languages as well.
Cristina Ruiz of Indra Technologies in Spain and Suzanne Forsyth of Entradas.com both speak English, French, Spanish and Italian. Maria Ferreras speaks English, Spanish and Italian, while Frenzisla Kelemels and Maria Galania both speak English, French and Spanish.
4 They have been with the company for ten years.
All of the executives have a long track record with the companies in which they now hold senior positions. Most of them have held multiple positions and have been with the company for about ten years.
Barbara Navarro has been with Google for 13 years, while Angeles Delgado has been with Fujitsu for more than 16 years. Nirea Torres joined Siemens in 1998 as Head of Quality, Marketing and Communications for Components and Automotive Systems and has been promoted to CEO of the group’s Infrastructure business.
Many have also worked for several well-known companies before joining their current work teams. Frenzisla Kraemels worked at McKinsey and Carrefour before joining Google. Suzanne Forsyth worked at Ericsson, PayPal, eBay, and Deliveroo before joining Entradas.com.
5 Several CEOs have worked at Google
In reviewing their career paths, we quickly realize that many of them have walked through the doors of Google.
While Klemmers and Nawarro still work for the tech giant, Maria Galania also worked at the company from 2017 to 2020, while Maria Ferreras worked at that company from 2007 to 2017.
Facebook’s Erin Cano also held two different positions at Google between 2003 and 2009, ending her time as acting director at the company.
6 They all believe in the importance of artificial intelligence (AI).
Many execs expressed admiration for AI and explained how it affects the way they operate on a daily basis.
Facebook has been using AI to prevent sexism, eliminate bad ads and turn your photos into 3D. both Erin Cano and Frencilla Klemmels commented on the importance of AI in their companies.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Carme Artigas, who is in charge of digital and artificial intelligence, has built her career on artificial intelligence, while Ruth Díaz of Amazon Fashion Group is responsible for launching Amazon’s clothing customization service.
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