Sherry Hess
The Design Automation Conference held last summer featured a Women in Engineering (WIE) panel discussion that presented some key points I’d like to highlight again. The discussion centered on the history and experience of the panelists, Radhika Shankar of Synopsys, Geeta Pyne of Intuit, me (Sherry Hess of Cadence), and Susanna Holt of Autodesk, as women in the male-dominated world of engineering.
Moderator Ann Steffora Mutschler of Semiconductor Engineering opened the session with the hope that the sharing of our experiences, both good and bad, would inspire and encourage other women in the field.
Ann shared an article from the NeuroLeadership Institute, “Why Diverse Teams Outperform Homogeneous Teams” [1], making the point that studies show that diverse teams think more logically, are more creative, and are more adept at identifying errors in thinking. The article concludes as follows: “We want to leave you with two thoughts: First, it’s not enough to know that diversity is important to your business. We want to know when, why, and how it’s important. We know that when the stakes are high—we’re relying on the development of an innovative product or idea, we’re grappling with uncertainty, or a crisis is bearing down—diverse teams are critical. Secondly, within the categories of identity and cognition, diversity takes many specific forms. And a great number of those forms have shown up in the research as critical to improving performance. In other words, be diverse in how you think about diversity.”
The second article Ann talked about is from the Harvard Business Review: “Why Diverse Teams are Smarter” [2]. “In a nutshell,” say the authors, “enriching your employee pool with representatives of different genders, races, and nationalities is key for boosting your company’s joint intellectual potential. Creating a more diverse workplace will help to keep your team members’ biases in check and make them question their assumptions. At the same time, we need to make sure the organization has inclusive practices so that everyone feels they can be heard. All of this can make your teams smarter and, ultimately, make your organization more successful, whatever your goals.”
With those thoughts in mind, opening introductions and remarks were made, which included some very sage advice for women seeking to advance their careers. Radhika, group director at Synopsys, has been with the company for 20 years. She stressed that, despite the belief that moving around can advance your career, what worked for her early on in her career was the idea that if you find a company that is technologically superior, with passionate people, and an open culture, then stay.
Geeta, chief architect for enterprise architecture at Intuit, began her career at the Indian Space Research Organisation, working on image processing in precloud days. Her recommendation is that you need a sponsor who is going to be there for you—she wished that she had had one.
I shared the advice I would give my 20-years-younger self: Build a network of people who will support you, and it is especially important to have male allies. You have to believe in yourself and get over the impostor syndrome of thinking you aren’t as competent as your colleagues.
Susanna was a Ph.D. mathematician and then joined a start-up where there were 10 other people, all men with Ph.D. degrees. She admits she suffered from the typical behavior of most women in her position: only speaking up when she was 100% sure she was right, never asking for anything, and so on. Most of the time men were not actively holding her back, but they weren’t supporting her either. She was promoted and got the recognition she deserved. She also took up a competitive sport in her spare time, which gave her a big boost.
Following on the topic of her keynote, Ann asked the question, “We have identified clearly what diversity is, and we know companies benefit financially from diversity, so what is it that is going to change things?”
Susanna commented that she used to hate quotas, i.e., a proportion of women. People still to this day say she only got her position because she’s a woman. I pointed out that even having this discussion means women are more aware. That is the first step. California had set quotas for female board members, which I consider a very positive change. IEEE has put out a WIE pledge. Maybe some quotas are needed at the highest levels. Geeta commented that awareness comes first, and then comes change. But metrics can always be gamed. While it is good to have a corporate mandate from the top, it needs to come from the base, too. It is about empowering people on the ground. Radhika said women shouldn’t think that this is someone else’s responsibility to fix. She also advised that, during a job interview, make sure that a diverse interview panel is also there.
Ann then asked, “It’s really good to increase diversity, but unless we change the systems we have, minorities don’t feel included (regarding maternity leave, flexible hours, etc.). What are companies doing?”
Susanna commented that working from home has helped—it is now socially acceptable for men to be more involved at home. Sometimes things happen naturally (if we can regard Covid as natural).
Radhika said that at Synopsys if people have taken time off, there are returnship opportunities. Synopsys encourages them to come back and mentors them. I said that Cadence has a similar program.
Someone from the audience asked, “How do we engage young women from an early age to believe first that they can do math, and that engineering and science are for them? Culturally that has been an issue. How do we encourage kids to think differently about their options in the future?”
Geeta replied that whether it is a girl or a boy should be irrelevant. Everyone should be exposed equally.
I pointed out that this question is often asked, and my answer is that it helps to have female role models that other women can see.
Another question involved how to identify a mentor, especially in a large company. I pointed out that larger companies likely have a mentoring organization within the company that can be taken advantage of. Cadence also has an onboarding buddy program. Every six months, we have a mentoring cycle. Intel and others do something similar. Susanna said Synopsys has a program too, but she thinks you should go outside of that. For example, if you are in engineering, then look for someone in marketing. Radhika commented that within the company you should choose somebody orthogonal, with a different perspective. I pointed out that many believe a mentor is someone who would be with you for life, but the relationship can also be short term.
As can be seen in this image, the event was primarily attended by women, but there was a satisfying number of men there as well.
The panelists were asked to talk about a specific situation they were confronted with and how they dealt with it. I recalled that, when I was younger, I was given the opportunity by a male ally to move to Europe and start a division of Ansoft (now Ansys). So, I went. Not too long into the relocation and new role, we acquired a company, and one of the gentlemen at that company referred to me as “the little girl in charge.” I had to go to my manager to share it—this was not a situation that could continue, and, thankfully, it was addressed and resolved.
Susanna said the big things are important, but the little microaggressions get to you as well since they are not worth making a fuss about. It is harder to find someone to empathize with on the little things.
I’ve shared what I viewed as the most salient pieces of advice that this group of women—who are operating successfully in a male-dominated industry—shared last summer. Every month Women in Microwaves (WIM) members share their unique stories and WIM perspectives through the IEEE Microwave Magazine “Women in Microwaves” column, so be sure to keep up to date on the IEEE WIM webpage (https://mtt.org/wim/).
Or if you’d like to pen a future “Women in Microwaves” column, just reach out to me (sherry.hess.us@ieee.org), and you’ll be on your way.
[1] D. Rock and P. Gercovitch. “Why diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams.” NeuroLeadership Institute. Accessed: May 24, 2023. [Online] . Available: https://tinyurl.com/jx5hwmjm
[2] D. Rock and H. Grant, “Why diverse teams are smarter,” Harvard Bus. Rev., Nov. 2016. [Online] . Available: https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2023.3284767