SOWMYA SUBRAMANIAN: Good morning.
Thank you for joining us today to celebrate
International Women's Day.
This is a global event, so I want
to encourage you throughout the day
to use the social media to express your voice.
Please use #WomenTechMakers.
I'm super excited to be part of this event.
I'm here because, like many of you,
I have a degree in computer science.
A master's in computer science from University
of Wisconsin-Madison, and a bachelor's
from Mount Holyoke College.
Also I've been in the industry for 15 years,
since I graduated.
And one of the senior women engineers
in YouTube engineering.
And I love being in technology.
This is not always the case.
Many women drop out of technology in school,
or even after they start their career.
Nearly 50% of women within the first 10 years
of their technical carrier either switch professions
or quit.
I have not, and I'm confident each and every one of you,
after listening to the great lineup of speakers
we have today and the events we have planned, will not either.
As technologists and thinkers, we solve everyday problems,
and we come up with innovative ways to make things happen.
Women make up 51% of the world's population.
Yet, according to the Department of Commerce,
women make up only 27% of all computer science jobs
in the US.
And these numbers are worse when it comes to leadership roles.
Women are part of 14% of Fortune 500 executive committees,
17% of Congress, and 11% of founder or CEO
positions in venture-backed [? packed ?] US firms.
The number of women studying computer science
is on the decline.
It's nearly 8% below where we were nearly 10 years ago,
and this is important.
It's important to note and recognize this,
because time and time again we have
seen that diverse and well-balanced teams result
in more effective decision making, and in better product
designs.
According to McKinsey, companies which
have a higher proportion of women in top management roles
result in higher returns on investment,
and bigger, higher earnings than average.
Catalyst found out that companies
which have at least three women as part
of their board of directors have on average
10% return on investment compared to only 6.2%
otherwise.
Universities and companies are recognizing this,
and doing their part to help bridge the gap.
For instance, Google provides a great work environment
for women.
Has strong women leaders to serve as role models
within the company, many of whom you will be hearing from today.
The women at Google Network of over 5,000
women from 23 countries is very active.
And Google helps organize events like this
to raise gender awareness.
We also, as part of our commitment to advancing
computing and technology at all levels,
we have education and research and scholarship programs
for aspiring computer scientists.
Our generation for Google scholarships
are aimed at currently enrolled high school
seniors, undergraduates, and graduates
who are planning to be full time enrolled
students in universities in the US or Canada.
The Anita Borg scholarship is for women
across the world who are pursuing
a degree in computer science.
And the Women on the Web program-- which started out
as a community based initiative to encourage
more women participation in Google for Business groups--
aimed at increasing the number of women entrepreneurs
in technology, and enabling women
to succeed by leveraging the power of the internet
early on in their startups.
This program that started out in India
has now expanded to Latin America, Africa,
southeast Asia, and middle east.
And it focuses on encouraging women and empowering them
in emerging markets.
From the very beginning Google's mission has been,
and goal has been, and the mantra
has been, focus on the user and all else will follow.
It turns out our users are 50% women,
speak different languages, and come
from different parts of the world.
And in order to better understand this diverse user
space, and build great products and services for them,
we need our teams to be diverse too.
So Google puts in a lot of effort
to ensure that we have an all inclusive workplace.
And that we reflect what our users are,
so that we can build out better products and services.
We also are proactively looking at ways
in which we can make the environment better,
and empower women further.
For instance, recently our focus on unconscious bias.
Research has shown that when we are
aware of our unconscious bias, we
can make more objective decisions
and have better discussions.
So over 20,000 Googlers and 80% people managers
have been engaging in workshops focused
on understanding the science of how the mind works
to bring together and have dialogues
across the company about the unconscious bias
and the effect it has on how we perceive others; how we
interact with our coworkers, our clients, and the business
as a whole.
Efforts like this allow us to make ourselves into a better
company, and become a better workplace environment.
In honor of International Women's Day,
Google offices all over the world
have been hosting events like this.
I was honored to be a speaker at the International Women's Day
event in Paris just this past Wednesday
to around 200-plus attendees.
It was invigorating and very energizing to see and hear
people's aspirations and dreams in those attendees.
And also to hear stories from them
on how the number of women in computer science
has been increasing in local colleges and universities.
So these efforts that we're doing is paying off.
In fact recently, when I was getting ready for these talks,
I found out that in 2014, for the first time
in the history of University of California, Berkeley,
an introductory computer science class
has more women enrolled than men.
[APPLAUSE]
And the slight change, the slight positive trend,
is significant for women in computer science
and women in technology.
So we have a great, great agenda planned for you
with amazing speakers, some of whom
I have the honor of working closely with.
And I'm confident by hearing the inspiring talks from them,
by engaging and networking with all the different women
engineers who are here at the event,
you will end the day even more energized,
ready to go change the world, and make things happen.
[APPLAUSE]