Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe Interviewed by Jeff Frick

Something rather unexpected happened during the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing yesterday. Appearing on a session discussing the role of women in technology, Microsoft Corp.’s Satya Nadella let loose a statement that would have passed as shocking even if it hadn’t come from the head of one of the biggest companies in an industry known for gender imbalance. Or at the epicenter of the fight to undo the status quo, for that matter.

Female employees in Silicon Valley, he said, should leave it to fate to sort out the pay gap that has persisted in the tech industry since time immortal rather than ask for a raise. The woman to whom the comment addressed, host and equality advocate Maria Klawe, appeared on SiliconANGLE’s theCUBE recently to share her first-hand perspective on the issue (full video below).

The fifth president of Harvey Mudd College would rather rely on something other than karma to change the imbalance in the tech industry, she made clear. “We need a movie, or a sitcom, or a drama or something, where we show teenage girls who are attractive and have boyfriends and who have a life, doing really cool things with tech,” Klaw told Jeff Frick.

Klawe took the idea up to a personal friend, and a bold idea for fostering female participation in the industry was suddenly turning into reality. “She said ‘I can do that, I’m gonna do a series about this group of teenage girls who start a startup and make a gazillion and change the world and how all of their love lives goes.’ You go!”. Watch the chat for more of Klaw’s insight about the importance of respect and culture to technology innovation.

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