Executives from throughout the hi-tech industry gathered during the first inaugural Women’s Entrepreneurship Summit to share their knowledge and experience with female entrepreneurs.
“Let's start by establishing that hi-tech is really the best place for women,” began Dorit Dor, Chief Product Officer for Checkpoint, during a panel at Tuesday night’s first inaugural Women’s Entrepreneurship Summit from The Jerusalem Post and WE (Women’s Entrepreneurship). During the event, executives from throughout the hi-tech industry gathered to share their knowledge and experience with female entrepreneurs across the country.
Dor elaborated on the juxtaposition between the many good opportunities for women in hi-tech and the relative lack of their presence in the sector. “As well as learning technology, it's the best opportunity for getting paid. It's the best opportunity for life balance because you could work from home in all the hi-tech industry, it's the best for every reason you could think of to work in high tech - and still very few select this,” she said.
“We have an issue,” she continued and explained why she believes the current branding of hi-tech is repulsive for diverse groups of workers. “For example, in cyber, you wear a hoodie and drink a lot of coke, or the men doing it in high school are not socially acceptable,” she said. These impressions make women fearful that they wouldn’t be socially accepted if they were in the industry, Dor suggested.
Besides problematic branding, the hi-tech industry offers several other hurdles for women, explained Dor, including the requirement to “opt in” in order to achieve success and the need to loudly self-advocate for themselves. “Usually women don't do this very well,” she said.
In an effort to correct these issues, Checkpoint runs initiatives helping young kids choose high tech and mentoring women to speak up for themselves and pursue promotion. “In the end, if you had a whole list of [mid-level employees] that are women, maybe that would help as well.”
Continue reading: https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/tech-and-start-ups/article-713172
“Let's start by establishing that hi-tech is really the best place for women,” began Dorit Dor, Chief Product Officer for Checkpoint, during a panel at Tuesday night’s first inaugural Women’s Entrepreneurship Summit from The Jerusalem Post and WE (Women’s Entrepreneurship). During the event, executives from throughout the hi-tech industry gathered to share their knowledge and experience with female entrepreneurs across the country.
Dor elaborated on the juxtaposition between the many good opportunities for women in hi-tech and the relative lack of their presence in the sector. “As well as learning technology, it's the best opportunity for getting paid. It's the best opportunity for life balance because you could work from home in all the hi-tech industry, it's the best for every reason you could think of to work in high tech - and still very few select this,” she said.
“We have an issue,” she continued and explained why she believes the current branding of hi-tech is repulsive for diverse groups of workers. “For example, in cyber, you wear a hoodie and drink a lot of coke, or the men doing it in high school are not socially acceptable,” she said. These impressions make women fearful that they wouldn’t be socially accepted if they were in the industry, Dor suggested.
Besides problematic branding, the hi-tech industry offers several other hurdles for women, explained Dor, including the requirement to “opt in” in order to achieve success and the need to loudly self-advocate for themselves. “Usually women don't do this very well,” she said.
In an effort to correct these issues, Checkpoint runs initiatives helping young kids choose high tech and mentoring women to speak up for themselves and pursue promotion. “In the end, if you had a whole list of [mid-level employees] that are women, maybe that would help as well.”
Continue reading: https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/tech-and-start-ups/article-713172
