News and Announcements about Women in Computer Science
News and Announcements about Women in Computer Science
Microsoft Corp.'s top female executive is leaving the company, the computer software giant said Tuesday in announcing its fourth corporate reorganization in less than three years.
Patty Stonesifer, a senior vice president who has been credited with building up the company's consumer software business, is resigning to pursue "personal interests" and a new career as a management consultant, the company said.
Her departure at the end of the year will leave the company with just three women among its 50 top executives.
Industry analysts said Stonesifer's departure was not a big surprise after she lost oversight of several profitable product lines in a February reorganization. "When that happened in February we were sort of surprised because she had been seen as a rising star," said Dwight Davis, editorial director of Windows Watcher, an industry newsletter.
Stonesifer, who was instrumental in Microsoft's highly publicized alliance with DreamWorks SKG, will take on the Hollywood studio as her first consulting client.
Last year, the federal Glass Ceiling Commission released a report saying that only 5% of senior managers at Fortune 1000 firms are women. This report was based on two studies, from 1989 and 1990 by Korn-Ferry International, an executive search firm, and Catalyst, a women's advocacy group. Both of these companies have updated those studies and now report that the real number is between 7% and 9%. This number, while still low, is large increase from the mid-80's 1.5% number.
The good news is that women are the fastest growing group of small-business owners, and now own some 7.7 million firms, up 43% from 1990. Part of the reason for advances by women in the work force is education - today, over 33% of MBA degrees go to women, compared to less than 4% in 1960. However, women still lag somewhat behind men in education, and are more likely to work in lower-paying fields with their higher degrees, such as education.
(Source: Investor's Business Daily, Thursday, February 22, 1996).
The bipartisan Glass Ceiling Commission, chaired by Labor Secretary Robert Reich, has finished a 3-year study and reports that women and minorities still face obtacles to advancement in corporate America. While women and minorities make up 57% of the workforce, 97% of senior managers of Fortune 1000 industrial and Fortune 500 companies are white, and 95%-97% are male. The report cites stereotyping, insufficient networking opportunities, and fear of change as reasons for the underrepresentation. It calls upon the U.S. government to establish (and publicize) better data collection on women and minorities and to strengthen anti-discrimination laws. It calls upon CEOs to encourage diversity in the workplace, to use affirmative action to choose, promote, and retain qualified workers, to establish policies supportive of family life, and to prepare women and minorities for senior positions.
United Technologies Corporation and Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., announced on Oct. 11, 1995 a new program designed to encourage girls and minorities to become engineers and scientists. Seven area high schools will participate in the comprehensive five-year program targeting 150 young women and minorities. The students will work with Trinity faculty, students and engineering graduates now employed by UTC on projects for science fairs, career days and academic workshops. UTC is providing a $300,000 grant to fund the program.
(Source: The Hartford Courant, Oct. 12, 1995, P. B4)
(USA Today; July 11, 1995)
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