Why Women in Blockchain Matter
As I walked around Consensus 2017, conference participants I had never met approached me frequently with questions. I enjoy networking, so I always stop to chat.
Attendee: “Could you tell me when the next keynote is starting?”
Me: “No idea, but I’ll share my program with you if you would like to have a look.”
Attendee: “Could you tell me where the bathroom is?”
Me: “There’s someone from the Marriott staff over there. Perhaps he knows?!”
Attendee: “Do you know if this is vegetarian?”
Me: “Hmm, what does the label say?”
As much as I love to chat with strangers, I was not equipped to field any of those questions and so off they went.
There were, however, many questions I was not asked.
“What do you think of Civic’s ICO announcement?
“What do you think the market cap of Bitcoin will be by the end of the conference?”
“Which startups have the most promising technology?”
“What does the $107M capital raise mean for R3?”
“What use cases are companies working with Hyperledger on?”
It’s too bad no one asked me those questions. I could have shared my own, unique opinion and engaged in what I’m sure would have been thought-provoking conversations.
Any woman who has ever attended a conference focused on finance, technology (or really any industry for that matter) has probably had a similar experience. And more often than not they’ve had that experience more than just once. That doesn’t make it ok, but it does make it common.
It’s that lack of substantive conversation that makes me realize the blockchain industry needs to recognize and celebrate the contributions women are making to this field. That’s why it is so important that Accenture hosted two days of Women in Blockchain events. It’s also conferences like Consensus 2017 that make me realize I am really lucky to work with IBM.
While I may work at a startup inside IBM, hierarchy has not disappeared. Yet, I have a direct reporting line that reaches all the way to the CEO of IBM that is almost entirely female. These women didn’t get their jobs because they are female — they are leading IBM Blockchain because they are incredible innovators, technical professionals and business people.
Still, I think it is worth a moment’s pause to highlight a handful of the fierce females in the IBM Blockchain unit:
BM Blockchain Ecosystem Leader : Sharon LaDay
Worldwide Leader of IBM Blockchain Garages: Eileen Lowry
Composer Development Leader: Rachel Jackson
Chief Data Officer, IBM Blockchain: Meeta Yadav
Director of IBM Blockchain product management : Me :)
Director of Product Management, IBM Food Trust: Suzanne Livingston
Director of Blockchain Development: Sharon Weed Coco
Vice President and IBM Fellow: Donna Dillenberger
Vice President of IBM Food Trust: Brigid McDermott
General Manager for IBM Blockchain: Marie Wieck
Vice President of Marketing, IBM Blockchain: Heather Clifton
Senior Vice President for IBM Blockchain: Bridget Van Kralingen
Chief Executive Officer, IBM Corporation: Ginni Rometty
Do you want to know why that matters for me on a daily basis?
For humans, seeing is believing, and I am fortunate to have peers, models and mentors who are entrusted with driving one of IBM’s most important strategic initiatives. What we do on a daily basis is critical to the long term future of IBM. Now when I close a client contract or deliver a new product, people joke and compliment, “Great job. Maybe you’ll be Ginni one day.” It signals a mind switch. My colleagues, male and female, now know what successful female leadership looks like and they have a new frame of reference for the future.
That mindset is helpful for me at IBM, but what about the rest of women in technology? Or the rest of the women on the planet? Why do we need to come together at conferences, at meetups, at hackathons? Why is it so important that women are an integral part of blockchain innovation?
Blockchain promises to remake the fundamental underpinnings of our society. Even outside the hype, Blockchain is already transforming our notions of money, identity, and how companies and industries operate. If we truly want to remake broken institutions, why would humanity ever leave that up to a narrow part of our population?
Our existing systems- financial, technological, logistical and institutional- were created over the last few centuries in a world where women were not part of public life. I think that everyone can agree the advancement of women has benefited our society. It’s critical that the next generation of technology incorporates those advancements and benefits.
I want a role and some control in how this new world is shaped. I want access to the new ways in which money is distributed; industries are run; identity is determined. And I’m not the only one.
