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Silicon Valley Trailblazers Say They Were 'Just Doing Their Jobs'

Meet Five Women Who Broke Down Barriers

I had dinner last night with five trailblazers of Silicon Valley. The group included a CEO (multiple times), a senior engineering executive, an expert in manufacturing, a senior vice president of marketing, and an investment whiz turned COO. Around here that might not be saying much, but this group was different: they are all women. Their careers started in the 60’s and 70’s when being a successful woman in business was the exception. Sadly, it still is. 

The headlines continue to tell us women are lagging in Silicon Valley. Sure we have Sheryl and Marissa and Meg, but they are not the rule. In fact, a recent report by UC Davis’s Graduate School of Management confirmed what many of us know: women have still not broken through the silicon ceiling. They make up only 9% of senior executive positions in technology and are only 2% of board seats. Of the 400 top public companies in California, the bottom 40% in terms of their advancement of women were technology companies. 

So when San Francisco Magazine recently asked, “Where is the Female Mark Zuckerberg” and then proceeded to highlight a batch of women, all young and up and coming, I wondered what about the females who carved the paths these women are walking on?  Why don’t we know more about them? 

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Let me introduce you: 

  • Judith (Judy) Larsen (our hostess) was an engineer in Silicon Valley when the concept of engineer in Silicon Valley was just being discovered. She got her first job in 1965 and managed to work her way up to head of engineering at Data Quest. She went on to found her own engineering and market research company. She is known for her widely successful 1984 book, Silicon Valley Fever: Growth of High Technology Culture.
  • Brenda Gebler was visiting from San Diego. Back in the day, she ran world wide education programs for Data Quest. Since then she has had senior positions in manufacturing and operations.  
  • Judy Hamilton was the CEO of Data Quest, FirstFloor Software, and Classroom Connect. Today, she is one of the rare female board members whose expertise is called on by numerous companies around the country. 
  • Susan Harman started her career in the investment world. She was the first female partner at Robertson Stephens and has since carved out a niche as COO for a variety of high-tech companies. 
  • Jere King (the “baby” of the group) recently retired from her role a Senior Vice President of Marketing for Cisco Systems. She was the one who kindly invited me to join this august group.

Over dinner, I asked them what it felt like to be a trail blazer. Judy Hamilton shook her head, “I never even thought about it. I was just doing the best job I could do.”

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Jere agreed, “My goal was not to be a role model. My goal was to be as successful  as I could be in my job and for my company.”

Judy Larsen didn’t think about breaking new ground when she got her Ph.D. in engineering and market research. She just wanted to be sure she had the knowledge to add value to employers. “I was always welcome at the table because I had more expertise than most in the room. That’s one way to ensure job security,” she said.

When I asked about any discrimination they may have felt, these women shook their heads. “Technology was so new and there were so many jobs and so few people who knew what they were doing, there was no room for discrimination,” Judy Hamilton said.

Susan and Brenda, who each came from industries that had more ingrained attitudes and expectations said it was not easy to be the only woman in the room, but that just made them want success even more. “I wasn’t going to let the guy who told me to get his coffee keep me down,” Brenda said. 

“It wasn’t discrimination that was the problem, it was sexual harassment,” said Brenda. Each woman had her own version of the story. In 1965, when Judy Larsen was interviewing for her first job, a potential employer asked her if she was going to keep her bra on or if she was “one of those bra-burning types.” She took a job elsewhere. 

Twenty years later, Brenda had nearly the same discussion in an interview.  “Will you be wearing that kind of underwear if I hire you?” a potential boss asked Brenda. She was wearing a camisole under a modest chiffon blouse and business suit. She didn’t bother to answer and took a job elsewhere. Both agreed, it was the potential employer’s loss.

Susan laughed and said, “Well maybe the tables are turning.” She’d recently been to a Dirty Old Ladies of Software event. No, it’s not what you think. These women have come from the software industry and are working to help the next generation succeed. Apparently having a good sense of humor helps.

After dinner, I spoke to Leslie Berlin, Project Historian for the Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford University and author of The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley. I shared with her my awe of these women who broke down barriers and never bothered to think about their role in history. 

“One thing about trailblazers is that they see themselves as putting one foot in front of the other, just to get the job done,” Leslie said.  “They never have the time to look up and ponder their role in cutting new paths. They're just doing what they do best.”

We are lucky they did.

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