Tracy Isacke, head of venture capital finance firm Silicon Valley Bank’s corporate venture relationship group, led a discussion at the Global Corporate Venturing Symposium today on tackling the disparity between numbers of women and men advancing to becoming senior executives within corporations.
The panel comprised Lisa Lambert, vice president of Intel Capital and executive director of women’s professional support non-profit Upward; and Eileen Tanghal, vice president of new business ventures for semiconductor and software producer ARM.
Tanghal spoke of the “culture of heroism” found within VC firms that is driven by the need to find deals in order to progress to partner level, and contrasted this competitive culture with that of corporations, which is “more about collaboration.”
Tanghal added that as you progressed up the ranks in Silicon Valley, women were simply not there.
The absence, she suggested, was partly due to unconscious bias, noting the fact that, for example, women typically make up only 30% of crowds in Hollywood movie scenes. Tanghal favours the use of quotas, stating: “You need a way to combat unconscious bias.”
Lambert also supported the use of quotas, saying: “Anything that helps women advance is positive.”
Lambert favours the coupling of an analytical approach to the problem – explaining how greater diversity at executive levels has been proven to lead to better decisions and better returns for the enterprise – to an emotional argument.
“You need facts,” she said. “Men are analytical. But you also need to explain that this will help create a better future for their wives, daughters, nieces and cousins.”