INTERVIEW EDGE • JULY 1995

Hiring More Women in Technology

Female executives traditionally have been in short supply in high tech firms, but technology-driven companies are currently hiring more senior executive women than ever before. The trend is not entirely altruistic. Businesses today are under increased pressure from employees, stockholders, and clients to build diversified staffs. Once they do, they discover that women are often better hires than their male counterparts, according to research by Fenwick Partners, a Boston-retained search firm.

Stream International Senior Vice President Judy Salerno, for instance, believes that women "are often more committed to the organization," and derive greater satisfaction from their achievements than do men. She also notes that executive women, unlike men at the senior level, tend to stay with one company and are willingly to wait for recognition and advancement opportunities.

Beverly Schultz, Vice President of Software Development at Avid Technology concurs. Although, she points out that women may sometimes sabotage their own careers out of a sense of company loyalty. She maintains that women in most professions, especially high tech ones, are stronger and better prepared than their male colleagues. After all, she says, "they have worked harder to get where they are."