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The Rise of Female Entrepreneurs in Washington DC

Name: The Rise of Female Entrepreneurs in Washington DC
Uploaded: 2014-08-29T22:57:12+00:00
Duration: 2 min 3 s
Channel: Royston G King
Description: In this presentation, the speaker, who chairs the Women in Technology Education Foundation (formerly Women in Technology), outlines the foundation’s…

29 Aug 2014 · 2 min

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In this presentation, the speaker, who chairs the Women in Technology Education Foundation (formerly Women in Technology), outlines the foundation’s mission to encourage girls and young women aged 12‑25 to pursue STEM education and careers. She reflects on her experience of often being the sole woman in professional settings within the DC metro area and cites research indicating that companies with three or more women on their boards tend to be more financially successful. However, she notes that only about 12‑15% of board seats in the DC region are held by women, highlighting a significant gender gap. The speaker frames the issue as both a pipeline and workforce problem, emphasizing the need for sustained support throughout women’s careers and proactive hiring practices that consider female candidates equally with male candidates. While acknowledging progress, she stresses that achieving gender parity will require long‑term effort and systemic change.

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[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] On the side, I also chair the Women in Technology Education Foundation and used to chair Women in Technology. The foundation's goal is to encourage girls and young women from 12 to 25 to pursue STEM education and successful STEM-related careers. I've spent my entire career in the DC metro area, I have almost always been the only woman in the room. So the idea that we're the best, I think is true, but it just goes to show how far it is before we really solve the problem. There's a ton of research out there that shows that having 3 women on your board of directors will help create a more diverse board. And if you look at the stats on it, They are companies with 3 or more women on the board of directors are more financially successful than companies with fewer than 3. But the number in the DC metro area is about 12, 12 to 15%. So there's still a lot of room to make things better. One of the reasons why I'm doing the foundation work is because we look at it as a workforce problem. There's no reason why there shouldn't be more women in the room. And part of that is a pipeline problem. And how do we get encouraged and support support them throughout their careers. So we're working on that. So the long answer to your question is, yes, I think this is a very hospitable region for women. However, it's still a problem. And only when companies actually say, I'm going to insist on looking at as many female candidates as male candidates? Will they make sure that they're getting a balanced viewpoint and hiring really the right people for the job? It's, it's a tough one. It's not going to be fixed overnight, but we are working on it.