Meet Amazing Women in Drupal
With so many amazing women involed in Drupal it was difficult to select just a few to profile for our event, but below are some insightful answers from some of the most influental women in the community.
How did you get involved and interested in technology?
I was always interested in technology. When I was a girl, it was extremely rare for girls to show interest in math or science. We had interest, of course, but social pressure was constantly against us (in my schools anyway.) So I studied theater, read, wrote and waited. Years later, my son started college young, so I needed to take him to class. I fell in love with Physics and went back to school to study it. In my first semester, I had to take C++ and changed course to follow that path into web development. Still took another decade for programming and the Web to intersect in the form of PHP (and other) applications but once that happened, I was hooked.
Diana Montalion, CEO at Amazee Labs (Austin)
I was a chemist in the pharmaceutical industry and wanted to change careers without selling my house and going back to school. I had made some websites for my music projects and realized that it took a blend of logical and creative skills that was a good fit. Also, it was a field you could learn on your own and advance on your own abilities rather than working up a corporate ladder. The pharma company I was working for went under and a music contact connected me with a fellow musician who ran a small web shop and took me on as an intern while I got unemployment.
Jody Hamilton, Co-Founder/CTO at Zivtech
I've enjoyed computers, gadgets and coding for as long I can remember. But I studied science in school, and I've spent most of my professional career in academia and the nonprofit world, where I was often the most technologically oriented person in the room. A few years ago I accelerated my coding and technology education, and recently I've transitioned into working in the tech industry full-time. There are lots of different routes into tech, and I love that the Drupal community in particular contains people from a huge variety of professional backgrounds.
Sandra Chung, Digital Strategist at Aten Design Group
Who were your important role models or mentors? Who played a key role in your success?
My father was a key technology mentor to me. Thank you for teaching me how to solder as a child. :) The most pivotal woman in my success is Karen Alonardo, CEO of CSRware. Karen hired me at Electronic Arts to manage the global email systems, a system that she put together! This was my break into enterprise scale software administration. It was great to see that in a heavily male dominated industry, she was running a large IT group, then later a Director in the online division. Karen has since founded her own company and is doing great things for the world! I had the honor to spend time with Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Canadian business woman and technologist, an early pioneer in digital communications. Dr. Sinclair founded and sold a content management software company to Microsoft. It was the first time that I saw the family life of an amazingly successful business woman. There can be, and must be, work life balance while being a CEO. I am thankful for the talented women I work with every day, including Kristen Pol, Kristin Tkoch, Lindsay Gaudinier, and Genevieve Parker. The men are awesome, too. No gender bias here. :)
Aimee Degnan, CEO at Hook 42
I had several mentors in college who steered me towards practical projects that all surrounded technology solutions to organizational problems. That set me on tech, and once I landed at Forrester Research analyzing technology markets and trends full-time, I had a host of mentors who helped shape me towards the product marketing career path I have today. I wouldn't call out any one person as more of a mentor than the other, and I've never asked anyone to be an official mentor. I look at people whose careers I admire and make it my mission to never miss an opportunity to ask a question and be mentored.
Jess Iandiorio, VP, Product Marketing at Acquia
What challenges do you face as a woman in this industry that your male counterparts don't?
I call it professional heartbreak. When I have to leave an important meeting to pick up my child, I struggle with how much I want to be in that meeting, and how much I simultaneously want to be there with my child. I'm leaving an opportunity on the table, professionally, to be with my child. It's the right sacrifice and compromise to make, but it leaves a sting of "what did I miss and am now excluded from?" I do not believe men suffer this at least to the extent I do. Many male leaders are supported by a wife who stays home and that lends them the flexibility to never have to leave during an important moment. This is one small example of compromises women in leadership positions with children still have to make unless they make enough for their husbands to stay home, but that is still not a 100% socially accepted norm so most women in leadership positions are likely not supported by a stay-at-home husband.
Jess Iandiorio, VP, Product Marketing at Acquia
Invisibility. I came into tech writing code. I am still extremely tech minded, which is why I CEO in a dev shop -- it requires me to stay very good at strategy and understand what and how things are built. Until now, I’ve played only technical leadership roles. Yet, if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if I am the project manager, I wouldn’t have to work at all. I was asked this after giving a presentation on writing code for enterprise sites, by an attendee. A guy once asked if I was the “den mother” and almost got punched by my teammates. With invisibility comes the challenge of being heard. I find that I can say exactly what the males are saying but my words are more easily ignored. Inside my teams, these issues are far less common.
Diana Montalion, CEO at Amazee Labs (Austin)
Assumption that unless one is writing code, there’s not too much value to add to the conversation. Writing code is only one part of the whole daisy chain called delivering great product. It’s getting better as the community starts seeing ourselves as a bigger ecosystem of many talents rather than only engineers. I was an odd duck eight years ago though!
Susan Rust, Co-Founder at Drupal Anywhere
What advice would give young women today trying to be a CEO/CTO?
Be confident. Do something because you enjoy it and not to keep up appearances. Don't overcommit just because someone asked you to do something and you are worried about letting them down. Delegate. Hire smart and reliable and nice people. Don't be a "fanboy/fangirl". People are good at different things and everyone has strengths and weaknesses. I don't think we should be in awe of anyone just because they did something great or smart. We can all do things that are great and smart. I like to think that we are all equals and some of us just have more experience and sometimes more talent doing certain things. That's ok. We are humans, not robots.
Kristen Pol, CTO / Drupal Architect at Hook 42
I'm not a CEO or CTO, but I have generic advice for young, ambitious women: Be excellent on your own terms. Seek unvarnished feedback, because it's rare and precious and necessary for success. Keep learning.
Sandra Chung, Digital Strategist at Aten Design Group
You can do it! Build a network of high quality people around you. This includes your employees, extended support services like lawyers and accountants, community peers, friends, and family. How do you know they are quality? They are kind, smart, and reliable. And different. Embrace each person’s unique contribution to your team. Foster your extended support network with kindness, mutual respect, and ethical business practices. Always. Constantly read, research, consult professionals, and understand empirical data before making decisions. As you enter in the arena of being a business owner or chief executive, you are responsible for all parts of your business. Crunch numbers. Always. Having a business is all about money flow and balance. Paying people is important.
Aimee Degnan, CEO at Hook 42
What advantages or disadvantages are there to being a woman in technology?
I find that I look at websites more holistically than the men I work with, which I think may be correlated with gender. I can see the functionality, user experience, design, content, information architecture, and the flaws on each level all at once, which seems to be an unusual ability.
By being in a position of authority I'm mostly buffered from the disadvantages some women face in the field. I only have to deal with sexism when it comes to working with a few clients or potential clients. Getting older has helped as well, in terms of getting respect.
Jody Hamilton, Co-Founder/CTO at Zivtech
Historically, women have to prove we are as (or more) competent than our male peers for similar positions and pay grades. My father advised me to seek out the best education, certifications, and experience to level the playing field. The more the better! The bigger the better! After all that work, I would have legitimate proof of competence, regardless of gender. This approach has helped level the playing field on the hiring front, but on the other hand, some say it is over compensating. It is still knowledge gained and helps me do my work well.
Aimee Degnan, CEO at Hook 42
I believe what may be considered as traditional female skillsets and traits (empathy, understanding, softer delivery around difficult topics), are becoming more and more important. I also believe we have genetic differences that allow us to master many more tasks at once. Our ability to multi-task successfully does allow for an overall capacity increase. Now, what women do with that and if they use it to their advantage is another topic :-) The disadvantage is we have to work harder and smarter at all times to shine, because the odds are not in our favor for those women who do want to pursue leadership positions in tech. There are many potential disadvantages, but I believe all can be overcome with the right work ethic, dedication, and relationship building.Jess Iandiorio, VP, Product Marketing at Acquia
Any last words?
Don’t give up. Stick together. Enjoy the ride. :)
Aimee Degnan, CEO at Hook 42
What I find the most ironic about the Women in Technology subject is this: doing my job requires that I enjoy and respect the company of men. It’s a two-way street. If I were a woman biased against men, I would have failed. And if I hadn’t been supported by mature and deeply good men, I would have failed. The most prevalent myth about feminism is that it’s about women. It’s not, its about a culture that divides instead of integrates. Everyone suffers.
Diana Montalion, CEO at Amazee Labs (Austin)
Be great. Being great is what you do when you’re alone, not when in front of others. It’s a way of being the best possible human you can be. Striving for that makes it irrelevant if you’re male or female. I’ve found for me, that “isms” do poorly in the light of greatness: generosity, kindness, integrity.
Susan Rust, Co-Founder at Drupal Anywhere
Come meet these amazing women and more at the Women In Drupal meetup!