Women in tech: men are part of the solution as well as the problem

       Can a man speak for women’s experiences? It is a perennial issue, leading to charges in the Twittersphere of “mansplaining”, explaining things to women that they have more expertise on themselves.

The controversy re-emerged this week, centred on Vivek Wadhwa, a lecturer at Stanford University. A blogpost by Amelia Greenhall, a tech blogger, forcefully described her anger at Mr Wadhwa having become the go-to guy for opinions on women in the tech industry.
“Many tech feminists (such as myself) like to mock Vivek Wadhwa as “The Guy Who Gets Paid to Talk About Women in Tech,” but what he does is a serious problem that hurts women in tech in tangible ways. By appointing himself the unwanted spokesman for women in tech he has kept actual, qualified women’s voices from being heard widely in the mainstream media.”
She was subsequently interviewed for a podcast on WNYC’s On the Media. The tirade was sparked by a recent Newsweek piece entitled “What Silicon Valley Thinks of Women”, which included quotes from Mr Wadhwa. In it, he is cited as saying that shaky self-confidence is one of the chief things holding women back.
Mr Wadhwa has written his own blogpost in response, rejecting Ms Greenhall’s charges.
Ms Greenhall’s frustrations are understandable but her charges are unfair. If women are to make inroads into male-dominated industries such as tech or finance, men have to sign up to changes too. As Jeanine Prime, head of the Centre for Advancing Leader Effectiveness, at Catalyst Research, a non-profit organisation that looks at increasing business opportunities for women, says: “For a very long time gender diversity [campaigning] has been dominated by women.” The group’s research shows that gender gaps are not just a result of women’s choices but have much to do with men’s behaviour. Men are part of the solution as well as the problem.