Lora shares her thoughts on the male-to-female ratio of the MVP Summit this past week at Microsoft. In my book, the summit flunks the bathroom test. There are way too many males in the group in relation to the numbers of females–considering how mature the industry is.
Evidentally, there are efforts to improve things. And yeah, I heard some grumbling about this. I heard some say that there were more active male candidates that didn’t make it into the MVP program because of efforts to try and bring in more women. But, I don’t buy it. It’s the metrics that are the issue. Sorry guys, they are relatively arbitrary.
My take: It’s going to take Redmonians to work with and mentor women from today’s high schools and colleges or anyone else that’s interested. To gain numbers is going to take work–hard work that very well may not be institutionally recognized today. But there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s the right thing to do. And those that do and succeed will become the leaders of tomorrow.
The cost of competing at all costs is a lesson that Microsoft is still struggling to learn. Particularly when the numbers get large, the equation changes. It’s a matter of economics. I can understand why it’s a challenge to shift ratios, but it’s not one that’s unsurmountable. There’s definitely more work to do here.
Well said, Loren 🙂