Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
June 17, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM U.S./ET (GMT-4)
Larry Bonfante, CIO of the U.S. Tennis Association, will discuss the skills and approaches that your rising IT leaders must learn to be effective in an executive capacity.
How to Handle Your New CEO: Managing Turnover at the Top
June 18, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM U.S./Eastern (GMT-4)
Turbulent times have increased turnover at the top. Find out what Council CIOs have done to "break in" new CEOs—build relationships, set expectations, educate on the role of IT.
Mid-Market CIO Panel: Tips and Techniques for Improving Vendor Relationships
July 15, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM U.S./Eastern (GMT-4)
We'll highlight relationship priorities and best practices identified in a Council study, and we'll interact with a CIO panel on the approaches they've used to improve strategic vendor partnerships.
Executive Competencies Assessment Tool
Assess Your Business Leadership Skills with the Council's new benchmarking tool. Rate yourself in change leadership, strategy, customer focus and more.
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September 15, 2001 — CIO —
Karen Hogan understood what she was up against from the get-go. It was 1978, and even though she had scored 100 on the federal government entrance exam, qualifying her to be an entry-level programmer, she was given a job as a keypunch operator. After a few months of that, she applied for a computer-training program, but her boss didn’t approve. "He just decided I should keep keypunching for a while, and he would tell me when I could move along," says Hogan, now 53. Undeterred, she went over his head and ended up before a governmental panel of real old-time bureaucrats, she recalls. They asked her to explain what she had ever done to show she knew how to arrange material logically. Hogan calmly explained the Dewey decimal system, which the panel had apparently never heard of. After only nine months in data entry, she got the nod to attend the training program.
Today, Hogan is acting deputy CIO of the Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C. Like many high-ranking women in public and private sector IT, she has succeeded despite a culture that remains resoundingly male and is frequently hostile to ambitious women. The statistics tell the tale; according to several recent surveys, women CIOs remain a small fraction of those who populate the executive suite. For example, out of the CIOs or CIO-equivalents at 300 Fortune 1000 companies and the 100 fastest-growing companies recently surveyed by Amsterdam, N.Y.-based Sheila Greco Associates, there were only 41 women (13.7 percent), compared with 259 men (86.3 percent). Greco says the percentage of women CIOs has not changed since her research consultancy began its annual survey in 1998.
"If IT were a meritocracy, we would have seen higher representation of women by now," says Mary Mattis, senior research fellow for Catalyst, a nonprofit research and advisory organization in New York City. "It seems the IT lifestyle and the work environment are not very attractive to women." According to another recent survey, more than 60 percent of women say the glass ceiling is a reality in IT. They cite a variety of factors: gender bias, stereotypes and the perception that women are less knowledgeable than their male counterparts.
OK, so the glass ceiling still exists. But women are moving up the IT ladder anyway, slowly and through a myriad of different paths. Some say they have been helped along at places by mentors who understand the need for diversity and the special skills that women often bring to the table. (See "What’s the Big Deal?" Page 120.)