English
Let’s take a look at how famous female IT entrepreneurs from different countries live, and how the love of technology unites them.
Ginny Rometty
Ginny Rometty was the first woman to become CEO at IBM. For ten years in a row, she was one of Fortune magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, ranking first in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Ginny Rometty on female co-workers:
Don't be afraid of difficulties: always be ready to take risks, dream big and set ambitious goals, and never let anyone tell you that this is impossible. Keeping women in the workplace ensures that the company gets a more committed employee.
Ginny Rometty about business:
Once I was offered a promotion, and I hesitated to accept it immediately; I lacked the confidence to believe I was not good enough for this position. I went home and told my husband. He said that it was a big mistake to refuse and that a man would surely not have responded in such a way. I did not sleep all night, and when I got to work the next day, the first thing I did was to accept the offer. I don't make such mistakes anymore.
Career growth and comfort cannot coexist. If you are successful as a leader, then you must take the discomfort for granted. You have to take risks because that's the only way you get better.
Speaking about women in the workplace, as a leader of the company, I try to create as many comfortable conditions for them as possible. I believe it is the company's job is to help women overcome difficulties. This should not be a one-off action, but an ongoing, constant process. Your actions will speak for you.
Margaret Whitman
Margaret Whitman, ex-CEO of eBay, HP. In 2016, Margaret Whitman was ranked 9th in the list of the 100 most influential women in the world by Forbes magazine.
Margaret Whitman's Business rules:
There is no need to monitor your employees and customers. You should trust all people and support your employees through their trials and tribulations.
Don't claim to know absolutely everything. It is better to consult with colleagues.
Do what you like, not your friends or family point to. You will have to devote a lot of time to work, and activity that is not to your liking will only cause negative emotions in you. We succeed in what we like, not in what we force ourselves to do.
Sallie Krawcheck
Sally Krawchek is a legendary Wall Street entrepreneur, and founder of Ellevest, an investment platform that uses robo advisory-platforms, designed specifically to meet women's financial needs.
Sally Krawchek's Business Rules:
Always be aware of the level of your finances. Study your income and expenses, and identify possible sources of profit. Conditions are likely to change, and the best way to deal with uncertainty is to stick to a plan.
For me, the most valuable commodity in business is time. I start working earlier than the rest. If you want to get work done, start while the whole world is still asleep.
Sally Krawchek on Women Co-workers:
Women will not come to power till such time as all the money is concentrated in the hands of men. If women had control of as much money as men and if there were no social and gender inequality, Time's Up (a movement that came about on the heels of #MeToo movement, which itself had snowballed on the disclosures of Weinstein case) would not have gathered the support it now has.
Don't think that negotiating is unfeminine. Quite to the contrary, it is very feminine! Women do very well especially when it comes to money!
Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, has been one of Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business since 2008.
Sheryl Sandberg on Female Co-workers:
I would like to say to all women: believe in yourself, stand up for your interests. Be conscious of your own success. We need to convince our female colleagues, our daughters, and ourselves to believe that we deserve to be promoted.
My generation will, in most probability, never live to witness 50 percent of leadership positions being occupied by women. But for future generations, the light is green. A world where at least half of the companies are run by women would indeed be a better place.
Sheryl Sandberg's Tips for Women in Business:
Stop underestimating yourself! Always take your rightful place at the meeting table! During meetings in Silicon Valley with an important high-ranking official, I saw that women accompanying him, although also occupying senior positions, did not opt to take a seat at the table. They sat in the row near the wall, as if they did not wish to draw attention to themselves. The problem with this story is that women constantly underestimate their abilities. Women do not stand up for their interests in the workplace. According to a study, 57 percent of men negotiate the terms of their first salary during the job interview, whereas the percentage of women who take a similar approach negotiating the terms is a mere 7 percent. Men traditionally attribute their success to themselves, whereas women tend to attribute their success to some external factors. If you wish to climb the corporate hierarchy, and reach the company's top management position, sitting against the wall, not demanding the seat at the table is certainly not the right approach. All promotions are going to evade you if you do not consider yourself worthy of your own success.
Let your partner in life be a partner in all matters. If a woman in management position has a family and a child, then she is doing 3 times more housework than the man. It's like she is doing 2 or 3 jobs. Also, who quits work when they need to stay at home? The answer is obvious. If we are to going to allow women to pursue careers, we need to accord the same degree of respect to household chores as to one's job outside the home because it is the hardest job in the world. Marriages, where the partners share equal responsibility, break up half as often.
Women often start out in their careers with the thought of how they will end it. A woman dedicates herself to work, and then one fine day starts thinking about having a baby. From that moment on, all her thoughts are centered on how the arrival of her child is going to change her life. She then abandons efforts to succeed at work. She completely turns inwards, stops taking interest in work, doesn't strive for promotions, and doesn't participate in new projects. I could understand such disinterest from the time she falls pregnant, but more often than not, women tend to take a subservient role from their engagement itself! That too without having an offer on hand! They only think about how to smoothly move from the job onto maternity leave. When planning for a child, you must ensure that the work you will be leaving is so interesting and worthwhile, that retuning to it is fully justified without having a twinge of guilt. If your attitude to work was such that two years ago you stopped looking for promotion, if three years ago you stopped looking for new opportunities, then you will find that a boring job awaits you upon return. You should keep working until the last, pour all energy into work until the day you need to need to stop, so as to have a safe pregnancy and a baby, and then return to your interesting position. Don't make decisions too early, especially if they are not fully justified.
Anastasia Sartan
Founder of startup StyleHacks.ai and career start portal Grintern.ru.
Anastasia Sartan on the move:
Having moved to Silicon Valley in 2015, I was with a child in my arms, pregnant with the second, and absolutely did not understand what I wanted to do. My first step was a fashion-telegram channel with recommendations on how to dress according to the weather and how to accessorize correctly. The popularity of the project grew, and along with the popularity, it became necessary to use a chatbot service. This gave us the strength to create a startup called StyleHacks and get investment from Google and Peter Thiel's "Founders Fund".
Anastasia Sartan about women in IT:
When I spoke at major conferences such as Vanity Fair with women speakers, opened a conference on artificial intelligence in retail in New York, I realized that it is actually more difficult for men to get a chance to participate in such grand events because for them, the competition is tougher.
In America, when women deliver a presentation relating to a women's product, male investors tend to consult with their wives or daughters rather than seeking the opinion of experts, but if a woman comes to pitch developments in the field of biotechnology, then investors first and foremost are more likely to seek an expert opinion.
There were several cases when I, as a young girl, was not considered seriously as a professional, so as a counter measure, I always brought along a middle-aged male mentor to back me up, when conveying my thoughts to the audience.
Marina Mogilko
Co-founder of the LinguaTrip project for learning foreign languages abroad and the service Fluent.express.
Marina Mogilko about women:
In the US, women always find support. In business corporations, important decisions are made by a board in which there are an equal number of men and women. If, while studying the fund's investment portfolio, a woman founder on the Board notices that the fund is not investing proportionally in projects lead by females, consequences can be severe, right up to the fund ceasing its activity.
Marina Mogilko on how to achieve your goal:
In the marketplace, everyone: be they a man or a woman, needs to project total confidence in their product. At any meeting with investors, you will always be bombarded with strong objections testing the worthiness ofyour product. Therefore, you need to be mentally ready to accept that that out of two hundred meetings; only a quarter may end up successful. Be mentally prepared for any outcome.
To build a healthy business, you must focus on revenue. If you follow the Valley hype and constantly look for help from investors, you may have to quickly shut up shop. In the face of the pandemic, this has happened to many startups that were holding out the hat to investors, round after round after round. Our business is built contrary to local culture.
Marina Mogilko about men:
I was involved in fundraising when I was 25, not even looking my age as a matter of fact. In business meetings, I often had to interact with seasoned, accomplished men well over twice my age who treated me like a granddaughter who had come to tell them something. If the projects proved themselves worth their while, my age, for the most part didn't really come into the equation.
It is a fact that most investors are men, and they opt for male driven projects. It is wrong, however, to assume that the tables are tilted against women. At times, there are of course not so subtle hints, but this is certainly not the case with American investors.
Summary
Have a high self-esteem. Don't be afraid to ask for a promotion and don't refuse a higher position just because you are a woman. Voice your opinion in negotiations, deal with men as your equals at the conference table, and draw attention to your problems and towards your ideas. You will find support, even if you feel you can't see the wood through the trees.
Share the responsibility for household chores with your partner. You are equally invested in work; why not expect the same standards of your family?
Take risks. Risk does not mean that you need to rush headlong into a new business without thinking through the strategically important steps. Try you must, no matter how young you are and no matter how much force it takes to break the "glass ceiling".
