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A L S O_ T O D A Y
T A B L E__T A L K What's the dream operating system for cruising the Internet? It's another Mac vs. Windows go-round in the 21st area of Table Talk
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BEAUTY AND THE GEEKS | PAGE 1, 2, 3
The "female executive interview" is the media's tool for preparing such stories. Industry veteran Ellen Hancock -- currently the CEO of Exodus, but previously an executive at National Semiconductor, IBM and Apple -- explains the formula: "They want to talk to your husband, take a picture of you in your home," write about personal details and marvel over the female exec's successes in a male-dominated world. Despite that, both Hancock and Melanie Warner argue that women can wrest control over what the media writes about them. As Hancock describes her strategy, she has simply decided for herself just how much personal detail she is comfortable with divulging. "IBM really wanted to emphasize that I was running their networking business. So we seldom gave 'female-only' interviews where the interview was focused on the fact that I was a woman," she says. "But at Apple and at Exodus, the PR groups were interested in getting me coverage, and getting coverage because I'm female helped the company image. So I do 'female interviews' more than before, but focus on the fact that I'm a manager first, the female aspect being second." Not everyone agrees that Hancock's take-control approach is feasible. Polese, for example, feels that most journalists have simply written the story that they wanted to write -- no matter how much she tried to excite them in her corporate enterprise software. Even though she was included in Time's Top 25 Most Influential Americans in 1997, for example, the story snarkily undermined her real achievements by dubbing her an "It Girl." "Great technology really excites me. It's what I talk about when I talk to members of the press -- the substance of what we're creating here. What I encounter, however, is a consistent desire to focus on me," sighs Polese. "The creation of a media sensation around an individual is not really in that individual's control. Anyone who knows me knows that what I care about is building a great company and introducing great technology to the world. How that is ultimately portrayed, how that ultimately gets to press, I have no control over. None." Katrina Garnett, the CEO of CrossWorlds software, is another example of how a woman can -- and can't -- control her image in Silicon Valley. Garnett is an attractive woman in her early 40s. Her face is splashed all over the CrossWorlds Web site, and last summer, she and her husband-partner designed an ad campaign that consisted solely of a stunning portrait of Garnett in a low-cut black dress, snapped by fashion photographer Richard Avedon, embellished with the phrase "Trail Blazer" and a brief bio. The ad, placed in mainstream magazines like Vanity Fair and Fortune, immediately caused a small furor in both Silicon Valley publications and national business magazines. "It's like the Madonna syndrome: Can she control her image or will she be controlled by it?" explains Warner. "Garnett was the first one to say, yes, I'm a sex symbol, but I'm going to be the one playing with that image, not you doing it to me. Before anyone starts to write about me as the bombshell CEO, I'm going to leverage it and use it to my advantage. I think it was too early -- the valley wasn't ready for that." Judging from the criticism of the ad, Warner is probably right. "Is this the response CrossWorlds is looking for?" wrote an incredulous Tia O'Brien on Upside's Web site. "CEO as Babe? Confusion over whether this is an advertisement or a 'beautiful people' spread? ... Isn't Garnett just a tad concerned about sending the wrong message to young women who want to pursue careers based on their brains, not Barbie Doll bodies?" While some women in the valley share O'Brien's sentiments that Garnett was undermining their efforts to be taken seriously by hawking her cleavage instead of her software (Garnett, who didn't return my calls, has said in the past that she was just "putting a face on the company"), there are others who feel Garnett was unfairly condemned. "It is extremely common for men to combine some power and virility," says Anita Borg. "It is deemed outrageous for women to do the same thing. What Katrina Garnett did was exactly that -- she was sexy and powerful at the same time. If Larry Ellison can have a picture of himself in an Armani suit, and that's an image of power, why can't that be an image of power for women?" The myriad female executives in Silicon Valley don't all agree on how Garnett, Polese or other CEOs should be positioning themselves in the media. But they do seem to offer strong and vocal support for each other. Many women in the industry know each other, either through one of the countless local networking-and-support groups -- like GraceNet, the CEO Forum or the Systers mailing list -- or simply because they have picked up the phone and gotten to know each other. As Anu Shukla, CEO of RubricSoft, explains, "I feel kind of lonely as a female CEO in this industry, but I would be comfortable as a female CEO picking up the phone and calling another female CEO. There are only a few of us, maybe we should help each other." Most importantly, many of these woman are also actively working to increase the number of women in the industry -- through projects like Borg's institute's efforts to increase women's influence on the development of new technologies, or Garnett's Backyard Project, which encourages young girls to learn about technology. This, in the end, might be the only way to divert the spotlight from their gender. As Polese puts it, "Hopefully, five to 10 years from now it won't be so
unusual to have a young female CEO leading a high technology company anymore, and therefore there won't be such an inordinate focus on her. That's
the day I look forward to." E-mail Janelle Brown. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
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