Accelerating Action at Altair's Future.Industry 2025

Altair recently invited me to be on a panel at its Future.Industry 2025 event, focusing on how women in technology can align with this year's theme for International Women's Day. Go here to see the panel session's recording and to check out the rest of the event. Altair's sessions on artificial intelligence, and the customer presentations are especially worth your time.

This year's International Women's Day theme was "Accelerating Action, For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment." We scoped that topic down to focus on what we can do, as women in technology, to empower others already working alongside us and those just starting out. Besides me, the panel included Harita Vinnakota from L&T Technology Services and Blinera Shala, an account lead for Altair's AI & Data Analytics business. Blinera brought a relatively-new-in-career vibe while Harita was mid-career; both work in big companies. I (hope I) brought a long-term view to the panel since when I started my career, I was the only woman in my role at Bath Iron Works. Samantha Simmonds, from BBC News, moderated the event and tried to keep us on track.

We covered a lot of ground in our session, from how to be heard and valued, to mentoring, to building a bench of up-and-coming leaders, but here are five things I took from our conversation:

• "Accelerating action" on equity issues sounds like there could be a quick fix, but there isn't. It starts with providing access to quality education for girls and women (really, everyone, but especially to under-represented communities), particularly in STEM fields. Then, create lifelong learning opportunities to help advance those skill since technology is constantly evolving. All along, bring these people into your workforce and encourage them to reach their unique potential.
• More immediately, we can all notice and call out inequities or instances of unconscious bias. As Harita pointed out, simply saying, "Wow, this is an [all-male, all-white, all-over-50, whatever] meeting" may be enough to get people starting to think about change since, often, people don't even notice that everyone looks like them. Sometimes this is intentional, however, and then they need to be held accountable.
• Mentoring matters. As Blinera spoke about, this can be in a formal mentoring program, but it can also be ad hoc. If you don't know how to do something or are unclear on the next steps in a task or your career, ask! It's lovely to be paired with someone whose job description includes being your sounding board, but don't be shy about asking for help. You'd be surprised at how often you get a positive response.
• But you are ultimately responsible for being the best you can be in your role. Women, especially, often think they represent their entire gender when they stand up in a meeting and propose an idea; that's too big a burden. Grab the opportunities that interest you then do the best you possibly can -- that creates at least the start of a path for others who look like you.
• Finally, don't let yourself be steamrolled. Again, speaking to women here since we too often allow others to steal our thunder. Claim credit (humorously, as in, "I'm glad you agree with that idea. I proposed it 5 minutes ago!") when necessary. "Excuse me, but I was speaking" also works well. Call out this out often enough, and people will think twice before repeating that mistake. And look for helpers; I can't recall how many times people helped me with "Monica, what were you saying." All of that works to both make sure we are heard and to change behaviors.

Diversity (whether that's by gender, age, ethnicity, country of origin, language, or many other types) matters hugely in just about every situation. More, different perspectives and skill sets create better solutions to just about any problem. But even a diverse team needs to be heard; if those ideas don't see daylight, they're not valued. Look for situations where you and others can present to your team. Maybe during a lunch seminar, at a staff meeting, by zoom or in person, build in time so that people can share their ideas about a project, some future goal, maybe even something they're just noodling on — it'll build confidence in public speaking, showcase different ways of thinking, and help identify who might lead a future project.?

I was the only woman in my department at MIT and, as I said above, the only woman in my role at Bath Iron Works. When I moved to Computervision, women made up maybe 20% of my department (in R&D; there were more women in other functions). We actually had a female manager on our team at one point. That was a long time ago; women like Blinera and Harita give me hope that that trajectory will only accelerate: they're smart, capable, inclusive, and thinking about how to pave the way for other women in their firms. A lot has changed since I was at those points in my career, and that's a very good thing.

We also need to remember that what we teach, we can unteach. The Norwegian Trade Union in 2018 did an experiment where teams of one boy and one girl filled vases with colored balls. When they finish the task, the kids were rewarded with sweets -- but the boys' container had far more candies than the girls'. After a bit of confusion (after all, adults are supposed to know everything, right?), the kids complained about the inequity and jointly evened out the reward. (Go here to see the video of the kids' reactions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nM8R9ooN-k )?

My point: Kids don't start out biased; if we model inequality, they learn it -- and that means we can model and teach them equality. Then, let's teach STEM, show how great tech careers can be, and watch the workforce become more inclusive. That's how we make lasting change.

Many thanks to Altair for the opportunity to be on this panel.