I know this is an old and hashed-out subject, but today I came across the T3 Tech 100 list of the one-hundred most influential people in the tech world and couldn’t help but be shocked by the nerdtastic sausage fest.
Not to say that this is the most well-composed top-100 tech list out there. For one thing the list is actually a top-104 with four picks grouping a pair of influentials, including Googmeisters Sergey B. and Larry P. sharing the top spot. I’m also pretty sure that #6 Yong Nam and #70 Woo Hyun Paik are not the same person, despite this list’s appearances. There is also a hint of European bias, not to be unexpected from T3, but worth noting along with a complete gloss over of investors. While on the whole investors may not be “influential”, it’s ridiculous that a few of them aren’t on here. Are you really telling me that Gerhard Schaas – the CTO of a UK-based high-end home theater company – is really more influential than Marc Andreessen or Tim O’Reilly?
But of course the biggest issue I see with this list is the unhealthy amount of Y-chromosomes. Out of 104 listees, only 9 are women (10 if you count Jonathan Ive), and they don’t even crack the top 30. Martha Lane Fox leads the group at #37. Her Tech100 profile tag line? “One of nine women on the Tech 100.” No shit sherlock. You couldn’t come up with anything better? I guess T3 felt it was better to blatantly state the gender gap as opposed to try and ignore it, but I feel bad for Ms. Fox.
My point here though is not that I think this list is inherently or purposefully sexist or something. I just personally find it disheartening that the state of the tech community is still so predominantly male. There’s maybe a couple of other women that should have made this list, though please correct me if I’m wrong. Marissa Mayer of Google comes to mind, as well as President of Oracle Safra Catz (and p.s. how is Larry Ellison not on this list?!?), but that’s about it. And that just sucks.
While the business world, like pretty much everything, continues to be a male-dominated legacy, I feel like the tech world should be a bit different. There’s no reason that a tech-geek chick couldn’t be the next Mark Zuckerberg, or Walt Mossberg, or Berg McBergersberg (note: Mr. McBergersberg is not an actual tech influential). I guess it just bothers me that there’s probably a lot of great innovation and progress to be made that we’re missing out on because it requires some female sensibilities or insight. And I hope a few years from now these Top-X lists will start looking less like a Dan Brown fan club sports pub collegiate computer science classroom and more like a Harry Potter fan club wine bar collegiate biology classroom. Or something. Sorry, I couldn’t come up with a good analogy, but you get the idea.
