To design products for women, hire more women as engineers | Opinion
If/ThenSheCan-The Exhibit, featuring more than 120 life-size statues of women STEM stars, made its public debut at NorthPark Center.Companies are making decent progress in creating products and services that cater to women. But much work remains to be done. And women, by and large, are in the best position to make it happen.
In all, only 18% of software developers and 28% of computer and information research scientists in the computer industry in 2019 were women, according to the most recent figures from the Society of Women Engineers. I know this firsthand. My career at Oliver Wyman has been marked by two firsts: first female head of engineering and first female engineer-turned-partner. My parents, who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam during the Vietnam War, had ambitions for me to forge a path in medicine or law. Always the contrarian, I chose software engineering, as I’ve always enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone, taking risks and sometimes even bending the rules.