The 103 guests invited to the "Technology Summit" last Thursday at Bill Gates' mansion ran the gamut from Al Gore to Steve Case, hailing from countries as far-flung as Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates, and companies as varied as Universal Studios and Target. But one group that wasn't well-represented was women - and a group of angry online women are planning their own summit in response.
"A summit about our future with one woman and 102 men? That ain't gonna fly," says Liv Faret, the Web entrepreneur who began the debate on the Webgrrls mailing list. "If Gates wants to have 103 men for a private dinner, that's his business. But this was a fairly official event, hailed as a summit."
The event's super-secret guest list, obtained by Wired News, included only one woman - AutoDesk CEO Carol Bartz. Microsoft spokesperson Jon Pinette, on the other hand, insists there were three women there, and that the list included Mattel CEO Jill Barad and US Postal Service CEO Mary Runyon. Further investigation, however, shows that "Mary Runyon" is actually Mr. Marvin Runyon. Which brings Microsoft's count back down to two.
But Microsoft isn't apologizing, insisting that the invitations reflect the state of the industry rather than the ideologies of Bill Gates and Co. "If there were only three female CEO participating it wasn't an intentional defect on our side, it was an attempt to get the right mix of companies and industries," says Pinette.
Women on Webgrrls and Spiderwoman have begun a campaign to bring attention to the lack of women at the summit. The group is organizing a summit that will invite female leaders in the technology industry to discuss what the future of technology may mean for those who aren't white male millionaires.
"I wanted to see something positive in response," says Stephanie Brail, mistress of the 200-strong Spiderwoman mailing list. "The dialog has been so one-sided that having a women's forum is important, where we're brainstorming a vision of what we want the future to look like. There's more to technology than Bill Gates."
Who are the women who are being overlooked? Carolyn Leighton, executive director of Women in Technology International, points to leaders like Esther Dyson, venture capitalist Ann Winblad, Adaptiv founder Audrey Maclain, and Laura Tyson, President Clinton's chief economist. Overlooking these women, says Leighton, will create a tunnel vision of technology.
"We have to find a more effective way of helping CEOs understand how including women will positively impact their bottom line," says Leighton. "If you don't include diverse perspectives, then you are less likely to accurately predict market trends, because women are the fastest growing purchasers and influencers of technology."
Brail hopes the invitees will include not just those female CEOs, but strong female community members like Stacy Horn, president of ECHO, and Aliza Sherman of Cybergrrl.
Participants are looking toward a late summer date. It hasn't been decided yet whether men will be invited.
