When I read this statistic in the McKinsey study last year, I felt relieved. It wasn’t just me, it wasn’t just in my head. Do you know how at some point you just start doubting your experience and wonder if it is really the environment or if it might be you? I got to that point often - especially when you don’t have a lot female colleagues around who you can share and validate your experiences with.

I recently came across yet another validation and even explanation: I read the book “Entitled - How Male Privilege Hurts Women” by Kate Manne who is an associate professor at the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University. In each chapter she describes and illustrates a different aspect of male entitlement. The two chapters about entitlement to Knowledge and Power especially resonated with my experiences of being a woman in tech, working in a male-dominated environment.

Entitlement to Knowledge

Let’s start with the entitlement to Knowledge. I am sure many have heard about the phenomenon of mansplaining, if not experienced it yourself. Manne writes: “I believe that mansplaining typically stems from an unwarranted sense of entitlement on the part of the mansplainer to occupy the conversational position of the knower by default: to be the one who dispenses information, offers corrections, and authoritatively issues explanations.” I think this describes the phenomenon pretty well and also explains why women feel they need to prove themselves - they often are just not assumed to know, they have to prove it. This explains why sometimes it does not feel safe to speak up in meetings, leading to many women being silent attendees in male-dominated meetings. In the first few years of my career, I remained silent in most meetings - unless I was 100 % sure about what I had to say, had the time to muster up some courage before speaking up (i.e. conversation had not moved on in the meantime) or I knew the attendees of the meeting pretty well and felt safe to potentially say something less than brilliant.

Another interesting point Manne makes is that if women are perceived as questioning the male entitlement, they might be “punished” - for example in the form of being cut off or “her status as knower vis-à-vis that subject matter is unfairly denied or disregarded”. Ever been in a meeting where you or your female colleague are making a point that receives no recognition and 3 min later another male colleague makes the same point but it is received with great enthusiasm? I certainly have seen such scenarios play out.

Entitlement to Power

“When it comes to the question of who is deemed entitled to hold power, women are subject to marked disadvantages under many (though not all) circumstances”. Manne describes a study where, given a male and female candidate with same degree of competence and likability, study participants (both male and female) favor the male candidate over the female candidate for a leadership position, especially in historically male-dominated positions of power. In fact the more masculine-coded the position (assumed to require a commanding, decisive, and authoritative style), the harder the balancing act for a woman to be perceived as fit for the role while not being seen as power-seeking or hostile.

This certainly helps explain the still very low percentage of women in tech leadership roles. But it does not have to go as far as leadership. Exactly this kind of commanding, decisiveness and authority is what convinces interviewers of a male candidate’s competence - often leading to overruling or at least undervaluing the technical assessment. Of course, this is amplified by the entitlement to Knowledge and assumption of competence explained earlier. Unfortunately, women and I myself fall into that trap. I caught myself being way more impressed and also intimidated by male colleagues or candidates with high confidence and assertiveness - until I learnt to recognize that bias and actively worked towards not letting it influence my thinking and decisions.

Disclaimer

Neither I nor Kate Manne imply that each and every single man feels entitled. This also is not about blaming the individual, it is about pointing out a societal issue at large that often can be observed without bad intentions or even awareness behind it. Moreover, men AND women show the same unconscious biases, so independent of gender men tend to be perceived as more knowledgable, competent and apt for leadership.

What can you do about it?

So how can we deal with this? I am a big fan of focussing on what you can control instead of wasting your energy on things you can’t control. First, let’s acknowledge and accept the situation as it is. The fact that we can label and describe it, validates our experience and we can let go of the thought “Is it me?”. Second, let’s build our confidence, courage, self-belief and determination in order to not get thrown off track by these phenomenons. More on how to do that in future issues of this newsletter 🙂 

Of course working towards a more supportive work environment within companies for example through sponsorship programs, female leadership programs, fostering male allyship and creating awareness for these biases are also important ways to work towards improving the situation for women.

Studies and stats 🔢 

I think most of us women in tech have been there - so good to know it’s not us and we are not alone 🙂

Source: McKinsey Study Women in tech: The best bet to solve Europe’s talent shortage published in January 2023

AI 🤖 

This month I learned more about the topic of cybersecurity for AI models. The recently identified security vulnerabilities in Huggingface models made the urgency of this topic clear and I think the AI community needs to give it more attention.

• AI and cyber security: what you need to know - all levels
  Basic cybersecurity knowledge for AI and a great point to start. Contains a great set of questions at the end to ask yourself to understand where to start with cybersecurity for AI in your organization.

• LLM AI Cybersecurity & Governance Checklist - all levels
  Great resource to familiarize yourself with what it means to deploy LLMs securely.

• Useful Resources for AI Security - all levels

  Nice list of further resources for AI Security.

• Navigating the EU AI Act - all levels
  Another recording of an event at the Merantix AI campus about the EU AI Act. Very clear presentation and visualization about the implications of the EU AI Act for practitioners and decision-makers. You could even download their Whitepaper in exchange for your personal data.

• Great video that demonstrates how to boost your marketing with AI - all levels
  This video is full of great demos showing how you can boost your marketing efforts with AI - without hiring anyone. I found it super impressive and already successfully incorporated some of the tools into my work.

• Mo Gawdat, Ex-Google Business Officer, on the danger of AI, episode from the Diary of a CEO - all levels
  Very interesting discussion on potential dangers of AI - while I don’t necessarily agree with all of it, I do think it is a worthwhile discussion with interesting scenarios and viewpoints.

• GenAI in production - challenges and trends - all levels
  Me talking about GenAI in production on the MLOps community podcast - great community led by Demetrios Brinkmann who aims to have 50:50 gender representation in speaker lineups for his conferences. So definitely worth supporting!

Wellbeing Hack 😁 

Kundalini Yoga 🧘‍♀️ 

I know the word yoga alone invokes pure rejection for some people - for others it does quite the opposite. I belong to the latter category. Recently I discovered my love for Kundalini yoga and did a teacher training.

Kundalini strengthens on the nervous and stimulates the glandular system to harmonize body and mind, it gives us tools to activate the para-sympathetic nervous system, the branch of the nervous system that lets us feel calm and relaxed. In Kundalini yoga, we work a lot with the breath which is a powerful tool to control our state of mind and body.

Just try it out, be open to it and judge for yourself 🙂 If you are interested, I teach Kundalini & Sound (crystal bowls) once every two weeks in Berlin X-berg (check out my instagram @sound_and_peace or reply to this email).

👇❗From surviving to thriving 🙂 

👉️ If this sounds interesting to you, fill out this form to apply.

Events 📆 

Let me know if you are planning to attend any of these events - would be great to meet you in person.

• Breaking the Walls of Women In Leadership And The Growth of Brands Socials - ONLINE
  May 2nd, 6 to 7 pm
  

• Stay in Tech - Policies & Practices 4 Attracting & Retaining Female Tech Talent - (in-person) 
  @ Frauenhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Berlin
  May 14th, 10 am to 4 pm
  

• AI, Regulation, and the New Work Order: A Blueprint for the Future - (in-person) 
  @ Merantix AI Campus, Berlin
  May 21st, 5.30 to 7 pm

Content recommendations 📚️ 

My favorite pieces of content to learn and grow!

• Slow Productivity by Cal Newport - Book
  I love this antidote to hustle culture. I just finished the book and realized I was already doing some of the suggested hacks intuitively. I still got a lot out of it - not at least the confirmation that success doesn’t have to come with uninterrupted busyness and frenziness.
  

• Daniela Amodei, Co-Founder & President of Anthropic- Article
  Definitely must-add for your role models 🥳 Claude, Anthropic’s LLM, is said to be the most intelligent LLM out there at the moment.

What do you think is your biggest challenge to succeed in your career? ⛰️ 

 👉️ simply reply to this email - make it succinct!

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