Are Women Too Complacent in Silicon Valley?

The gender gap continues in Silicon Valley, but many women stand idle. According to the New York Times, and the Study of California WomenBusiness Leaders, gender discrepancies persist in the technology sector, especially at the executive and engineering levels. While a growing number ofwomen have joined forces via #changetheratio, others continue to remaincomplacent to the gap.

In my inaugural post here at More Seats, my team at JESS3 and I visualized the staggering statistics about the number of power seats that women hold in a variety of industries. To build on these statistics and to add further insight and urgency to the issue, I am excited to welcome guest poster Azita Ardakani. Azita is not only a woman who is defying these statistics as the founder oflovesocial.org, but is someone who recognizes the importance of fighting this battle through vocalization and visualization. Azita, take it away.

Photo By: Christine Chang

It is amazing how when something is not widely addressed, or top of mind, it can slowly become the norm.

Without a dose of urgent perspective, many issues get swept under the global rug of apathy. With a clear saturation point of “world problems,” it seems like a societal algorithm is the only indicator of when certain issues come to light.

Like everything else, it took a tipping point of cross-communication to pique my attention to something that is not new, yet is not always top of mind. A series of events — a short video shared on Facebook, an article read at home and a conversation provoked online — focused my attention back to women in media.

After seeing the trailer for MissRepresentation, I had a visceral reaction and immediately knew this was a project that I wanted to support. Shortly after, I came across an article titled “The Case for Girls,” which focused on the premise and study that, overall, more parents would rather bring a boy into this world than a girl. These events were met with a visible groundswell of discussions around the topic of inequality, both online and off.

As MissRepresentation illustrated, there is a real disparity in society today that really should turn apathy upside down. It becomes increasingly evident when the facts are condensed and delivered cohesively.

Via: Forbes