Technology and innovation are too important to be left to men alone!

Let’s just agree that this is an age of disruptions. We live in period of transformative change where the fastest to respond may become the fastest to succeed. Irrespective of the gender, this generation leaders need to comprehend this pace to start building their own road to success. Disruption is not only about thinking of new creative ideas all the time, it’s also about reinventing yourself, the way you work and challenge your beliefs. Most of the successful leaders recognize the value of soft skills and need to develop strong emotional intelligence than just relying on high IQ to achieve success. This is where women leaders have a natural advantage — of being a lot more adaptive to change while they have the strong resilience to make it work.

About women and their role today in new age sectors, the C-Suite current statistics may not look desirable but it is promising and encouraging. We are increasingly looking at women driving innovation and defining success on their own terms while they overcome unconscious biases. Female entrepreneurship is no more about blending with the men. Though, there is no denying of the fact that women do face gender inequality especially in the tech and innovation sector.

A recent study reveals that 45 percent of women entering the tech space leave the industry within a year. Reasons could be many, starting from non-flexible work schedule to an almost absence of female mentors and peers. Or if we look at the Indian startup space for example, women do have a long way to go to change the current statistics. Very often, they have to prove themselves over and over again, their successes are discounted and their expertise is questioned. At times, women experience being excluded from more innovative roles and instead channeled into less fulfilling execution roles, and having their ideas ignored until some else makes the same suggestion. Especially in sectors like innovation, people just assume you are not going to be able to cut it. But the battle to stay relevant for women leaders during this disruptive age is more with themselves than with the world around. To shatter any glass ceiling, women need to first come out of the stereotypes themselves with self-belief. 

While gender inequality is especially stark in tech and innovation, the mindsets of women are indeed changing to lead disruptive change in these sectors and break the age old stereotypes. More and more leaders are realizing that diversity of thought and perspective is important in any field and not just engineering. While balancing work and life may be challenging, the number of women opting for entrepreneurship is increasing. I can see so many bright women entrepreneurs being diligent to stay ahead of the curve. They are highly skilled, fearless and able to find clarity in the chaos in this age of disruption.

We need to start rising above the age-old perceptions; there are women who are so stellar and so charismatic that none of this mattered to them on their paths to success. Look at disruptive women leaders like Megan J. Smith, the first female CTO of United States or Sheryl Sandberg, COO at Facebook who is an all-rounder boss and an inspiration for many women. These and many such strong women leaders across the world have found something they are passionate about and they are unstoppable with the talent and energy they bring on the table. 

For women who are already leading, it’s important to keep the momentum going with constant digital transformation and have a clearly defined purpose. Unlike the general perception, this could be relatively less challenging for the women due to the propensity for perseverance and the greed for learning.

I believe that new age women leaders no longer have an “if I can” mindset, it’s more about “how I can” and this change in mindset is exciting and is opening many new doors in new age businesses. The disparities are not going to go away overnight; we just need more and more success stories and powerful women leaders as role models to lead the disruptive change in the mindset of people. Having role models who are the same gender as you, who have battled the same challenges as you have, and who come from a similar background as yours, can go a long way in inspiring more women to join the less traveled path.

If you focus on being the best that you can possibly be, people do respect you for your competence and resilience and you are better equipped to succeed in this fast-changing world. After all, technology and innovation are too important to be left to men alone! 

Female entrepreneurship is no more about blending with the men; though, there is no denying of the fact that women do face gender inequality especially in the tech and innovation sector

The battle to stay relevant for women leaders during this disruptive age is more with themselves than with the world around; and to shatter any glass ceiling, women need to first come out of the stereotypes themselves with self-belief

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