17 Confronting the Absence of Women in Technology Innovation

Only 19 percent of all software developers are female, and very few are in technology leadership roles that would enable them to make truly innovative contributions. Consider that 88 percent of all information technology patents (1980–2010) have male-only invention teams while only 2 percent have female-only invention teams.
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These statistics and others imply that a largely homogeneous group is creating the technology the world uses today—US white males (and increasingly Asian males). Women, and especially women of color, are essentially absent from technology innovation—absent because of low participation, absent because the world does not experience their potential contributions, and absent because when women do make technical contributions, they are often ignored, not recognized, or not given credit for their ideas. This is especially troubling given ample evidence of the critical benefits diversity brings to innovation, problemsolving, and creativity. Indeed, innovation springs from diversity—diversity of ideas, perspectives, voices, and in short, a diversity of people.
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