IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2013 - 21

Wall, the overall percent for Germany
decreased to 7%, suggesting that the
East German support system-personal,
professional, state-government-was a
significant factor in a woman's career
choice and an ability to sustain that
choice [6].

The IBM Echo
The experiences of the IBM women we
interviewed, who had either worked in
Europe or worked closely with teams in
Europe, echoed these differences. Technical women colleagues in Germany, for
example, tended not to have children.
However, in other countries, such as
France and England, more technical
women have families because there is
more of a focus on work/life balance
with a conscious effort to take time off
and be able to attend to family matters.
In Asia, there are many interesting statistics on women in engineering
and computer science. In India, 1% of
engineering students were women in
the 1970s, and that number has now
jumped to 15%. However, to put this in
context, Indian institutions turn out
only 10,000 women engineers per year,
among a yearly output of 500,000 engineers nationally [7]. In China, although
one third of scientists are women, they
comprise less than 5.5% of the members
of the Chinese Academy of Science and
the Chinese Academy of Engineering [8].
In Brazil, women represent more
than 60% of college graduates, yet only
5% choose a career in computer science.
However, women are the majority in
many other scientific fields. Why this
distinct difference? "The good male students are quickly co-opted by companies
in countries with lots of money, so they
tend to leave. But the women remain
at home; that's why so many university
professors in Latin America are female,"
says Gloria Bonder, UNESCO regional
chair of Women, Science, and Technology in Latin America [9].
Our interviews with IBMers from
Brazil supported these statements.
From the perception that many research
programs in universities are less competitive than in industry, to the flexibility of working hours in a university

has been abundant opportunity for its
environment, to Brazil's mandatory fouremployees to travel abroad, take assignmonth maternity leave for women,
ments in foreign countries, and work
women in Brazil gravitate toward careers
closely with people from many differin academia.
ent parts of the world. This has been
While there are many reasons behind
amplified in the last ten years as comthe statistics on women in the STEM
munication and social media tools
fields, we believe the entire story canhave become more sophisticated and
not be captured by statistics alone. The
available. Through audio and
complexity of environment, culvideo conferencing, virtual
ture, perceptions, unconteams have been estabscious beliefs and biases,
IBM has
lished across the globe
laws, policies, educationregularly been
who work together on
al institutions, and ecorecognized as a
projects without ever
nomic conditions bring
meeting face to face.
many factors to bear
workplace that is
M a ny p e ople h ave
on the numbers, differfriendly to working
long-standing relationing in importance based
mothers.
ships, working together
on time and place [10].
for years, without ever
IBM was founded in
meeting each other in person.
1911 in Endicott, New York,
Working cross-border, whether in
by Thomas J. Watson. Ranked the
person or virtually, presents a differ31st largest firm in the world by Forbes
ent set of challenges than the earlier
in 2011, IBM is now a global company
office paradigm, where everyone sat side
manufacturing and selling products
by side in an office space, shared coffee
and services across the full gamut of
breaks and lunch, and lived in the same
technology-hardware, software, concommunity.
sulting, and running the infrastructure
and applications for many of the world's
largest firms across all major industries.
Ten Technical Voices
IBM has a long history of manageFor this article, we interviewed ten IBM
ment practices committed to assisting
technical women with a wide range of
every employee attain his/her highest
experiences, both in the type of work
potential. This commitment transthey have done and where they have
lated into many pioneering policies for
done it. We asked each person a set of
equal opportunity long before these
questions focused on his/her career and
practices were law in the United States.
his/her experiences working in a global
In 1935, IBM held its first training class
company. To facilitate the discussion
for women systems service professionwith our interviewees, we introduced
als. In 1942, IBM launched a program
them to the subject of this article and
to employ disabled individuals. In 1946,
provided them with a set of questions
18 years before the Civil Rights Act of
prior to meeting so they would have
1964, IBM hired its first black salesman.
time to prepare and reflect on their
In 1961, IBM's nondiscrimination polresponses. We recorded the interviews
icy (instituted in 1952) was expanded
rather than taking notes so we could
to include gender, national origin, and
focus on the responses and follow up
age. Due to its commitment to equal
questions.
opportunity and rights, IBM has regularly been recognized as one of the most
Interview Questions
admired companies (#12 by Fortune in
1) What cultural differences in the work2011) and a workplace that is friendly
place and out of the workplace have
to working mothers (Top 10 in Working
you experienced?
Mother magazine, 2004) as well as gay/
2) How did you decide to get into your
lesbian employees.
field? Who were your role models?
Since IBM operates its business in
3) How do you see the role of women
over 170 countries worldwide, there
changing over the next several years

June 2013

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