The “Making the Future Visible: 100 Innovative Women in Tech” project saw female scientists from the Institute for Research in Social Sciences (ISF) in Munich, Germany, and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg study the tech industry to discover whether it is creating opportunities for women. The project’s researchers interviewed 100 trailblazing women who are driving a new culture of innovation and transformation at tech companies, but don’t necessarily have a background in STEM.

100 Women in Tech

The results of the study are in, and one thing is clear: women have a bright future in tech. This was also the message from the female trailblazers who were interviewed as part of the project.

“Our key finding is optimistic: the digital transformation is opening up new opportunities for women,” Kira Marrs from ISF Munich says. It is important here, she notes, to think about how digitalization and gender equality fit together. We need to consider how we can break with existing structures and look at what we can do to create even more possibilities, she says.

According to Christine Regitz, cofounder of the Business Women’s Network from SAP, head of 51ˇçÁ÷Women in Tech, and president of the German Informatics Society, the number of women in tech has stagnated over the last 15 years. Yet the sector needs women who will shape its progress, especially given the skills shortage, she says. “We need digital sovereignty to make conscious decisions. It’s about more than programming,” she continues. “We also need the skills and expertise to make digital technologies work for us.”

Anja Bultemeier from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg agrees that it is no longer about the technology itself, but about how people interact, which is why new factors, such as customer and user experience, are becoming increasingly important. “Seeing technology through this new lens has created opportunities for women who do not have a technical background,” she says. One quote from a study participant explains this change very neatly: “I don’t sell technology; I sell solutions.” Increasingly, non-tech women are heading up technical teams and shaping the strategies and visions that will produce the best possible customer experience.

From Literary Studies to Google: Examples of Innovative Career Paths

The researchers also found that taking a less traditional approach to hiring makes it easier for women to get a foot in the door – after all, when roles are flexibly defined, they are open to people who have an atypical background. Take these women for example.

Eva Bacon’s patchwork and rather unconventional career path took her from studying literature to working for Google in New York – a perfect example of a non-tech woman at the center of the tech world. Bacon now oversees transformation projects as a senior program manager at Google. “Anything is possible in this job,” she says enthusiastically. Part of her work involves motivating and guiding her employees. At a workshop, she recalls, the participants were tasked with building houses out of spaghetti, and the instructor said to her, “You need to be the glue that holds everything together. We have enough people building houses. We now need someone who can make a city out of them.” Being a born organizer, she found that an easy task. Abstract thinking, she says, is something that comes to her naturally. What really helped her gain a foothold in the tech world, though, was the fact that she had taken the time to learn about HTML. Whenever she needed to know anything else, she would ask the computer geeks, adding that it is nevertheless important to have “a certain affinity for technology and to have the confidence to tackle new topics and ask questions.”

Back when Sarah Mang-Schäfer was at high school, she set an ambitious goal in her art class of one day coming up with the advertising image of the century. These days, as head of a public cloud engineering team, she flexes her creative muscle in a more technical capacity. Although she went on to study computer science, she found that art and technology were not so different after all. “To solve problems, you need to be creative,” she says. She worked initially in neuroscience, which taught her the importance of networking. She then poured her energy into cancer research, teaming up with doctors to test software. It was in this role that she realized what successful IT implementation was all about, namely understanding what customers want without them needing to ask for it. Today, we call that customer or user experience, fields which are growing in the IT industry and where women in particular have the breadth of skills and expertise required.

Driving Change to Shape the Future

At BSH, one of Europe’s largest makers of home appliances, the officer in charge of manufacturing strategy is Fiona Taylor. A scientist by training, Taylor is on a mission to attract more women into manufacturing, because she firmly believes that gender diversity benefits companies. With so few women in industry, she knows all too well how it feels to be the lone woman in the room, which is one reason why she wants to see the situation change.

Passionate about her work, she loves the variety her job brings: “I work with so many different people across the company, from purchasing and manufacturing to logistics.” Her task is to ensure everyone on the operational side pulls together. “Being one of the people who determines where we invest and where we build new manufacturing plants, I can help ensure that we remain competitive as a German company. And it means I can influence our corporate culture.” When she returned to work after having her second child, Taylor was pleased to discover that the company’s thinking had shifted. She was asked to head up manufacturing for the very reason that she thinks out of the box and asks the questions that need asking – and would be an ideal role model for combining a leadership position with working part-time. Taylor urges women to “have the courage to start the conversation and drive change,” and calls on other female leaders to reach out to two other women to help them progress as well.

Stephanie Karger, head of Standard and Safety at BSH, is further proof that you do not have to work full-time nor have technical expertise to be an effective leader. “We’ve adopted a new leadership style, one that is based on trust and equality,” Karger says. “Whenever I need specialist technical knowledge, I simply ask my team.” Women are more likely to see leadership roles in this way, which is something their team members appreciate too, because it gives them the autonomy that many of them desire.

Anja Schneider has been global head of Premium Engagement & Advisory, Customer Services & Delivery at SAP, since April 2024. Prior to this, she was chief operating officer of Technology & Innovation for many years. “I enjoy creating impact – and being the person who is ultimately responsible when customers have a problem,” Schneider says. “Bringing together a whole network of experts to find a solution is rewarding.” At SAP, she says, she has never encountered anyone who doubted women’s ability to lead. Schneider’s career has taken an unconventional path, too: she joined 51ˇçÁ÷from Germany’s civil service. Leaving the public sector for the private one was a leap into the unknown for her. But, as Schneider puts it, challenges like this push us out of our comfort zone so that we can learn and grow. In her case, it took an open mindset and an interest in technology. Besides, she adds, having a different perspective is also an advantage when it comes to being an advocate for the customer. According to Schneider, a team of developers does not need another developer to lead it.

AI Creates New Opportunities and Reduces Bias

Eva Zauke, executive vice president of 51ˇçÁ÷Enterprise Adoption and engineering location lead for 51ˇçÁ÷Labs Walldorf and St. Leon-Rot at 51ˇçÁ÷SE, is involved in examining how artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way we work and creating new careers for women. “AI is opening up opportunities to women who are ready to enhance their skills.” For instance, AI is leading to new roles in IT beyond traditional programming ones. According to Zauke, data scientist, prompt engineer, ethics expert, interface designer, model engineer, and user experience designer are just some of the careers emerging in the field of AI. They also appeal to a wider spectrum of applicants, including graphic designers, people with a humanities background, and psychologists. However, while AI can unlock opportunities for women, it can also perpetuate gender disparities because, as Zauke says, data is biased: “AI inherits bias from the humans who program it, who, more often than not, are white men.” Having more women working on AI would, Zauke believes, not only reduce data bias but also help fill the talent gap in Europe’s tech sector.

Verena Laumayer is a member of the 51ˇçÁ÷Women in Tech strategy team, which is part of the Office of the CEO. She often finds herself at business events where not one speaker is a woman. Whenever she mentions this to the organizers, invariably the answer is that they simply could not find one, which is why she calls on women to have more confidence in their expertise and to increase their visibility. Public speaking skills can be learned, she says. Laumayer has no doubt that women need to be at the forefront of the tech economy and help shape its future.

Photo copyright: Markus Seidl, SAP
This feature first appeared on the German 51ˇçÁ÷News Center.

Here, five 51ˇçÁ÷employees share about their roles, motivations, and tips for anyone wanting to step into AI. The women – Khawla Mallat, Camila Lombana Diaz, Xin Chen, Nadine Hoffmann, and Puntis Palazzolo – span four countries and three areas: Data Science Engineering, Product Management, and AI Ethics.

Data Science Engineering

Dr. Khawla Mallat, Security and Quantum Exploration Team, 51ˇçÁ÷France

“Be ready to be challenged all times,” says Mallat, if you want to build a career in AI.

Unlike most data scientists at SAP, Mallat does not work directly on the product but is firmly anchored in researching and addressing “some of the technical challenges related to AI, namely fairness, explainability, privacy, and security.”

Prior to joining 51ˇçÁ÷two years ago, Mallat was confronted with the unintended prejudices of face analysis systems. Certain demographic groups, explains Mallat, used to be inadvertently omitted or underrepresented in the underlying data sets, leading to shortcomings in the face analysis capabilities. Such cases highlight the broader issue of bias in other AI applications. In areas like HR, she continues, removing personal details in data sets might seem to solve the bias issues, but AI can still infer these details. This leads to potentially biased outcomes and the lack of explainability in AI models makes identification of such biases difficult. Letting data sets like this take root and grow into powerful data models not subject to scrutiny will only magnify the inherent bias or discrimination.

Today Mallat’s passion for addressing such unfairness aligns well with her role of identifying the inherent risks of AI, educating teams about them, and defining technological solutions to mitigate them.

“We need to adopt an interdisplinary approach to AI, with experts from ethics, legal compliance, and domain experts, for example, and abstract ourselves from the role of data scientists to succeed,” says Mallat.

“I love working in AI,” she continues. “Everything is progressing at an incredible pace so if you want to work in AI, you have to have a certain thirst for knowledge. And, regardless of your role, you must take AI ethics – regulations and regulatory frameworks – seriously because these have huge implications not only for 51ˇçÁ÷but for individuals and societies in general.”

AI Ethics

Camila Lombana Diaz, Responsible AI, Germany

“AI is a mirror of our capacities as humans. And the biggest responsibility for those working in AI is, what do we want to see in that mirror?” explains Lombana Diaz, AI ethics research expert in the AI Ethics/Responsible AI team located in the 51ˇçÁ÷Business AI growth area.

Lombana Diaz’s responsibilities include maturing and applying the 51ˇçÁ÷AI Global Ethics policy, creating and delivering enablement content, defining AI personas and processes, and giving guidance to make responsible AI an operational reality for development, as exemplified in SAP’s AI ethics handbook.

When she joined 51ˇçÁ÷eight years ago, initially as a UX designer and then a strategic designer, machine learning and AI were core topics. But it became increasingly clear to her that “understanding the human implications of AI for a responsible and ethical AI demands a human-centric perspective.”

Even though 51ˇçÁ÷is committed to the ethical development of AI – developers must now complete AI ethics assessment tasks and a steering committee scrutinizes all high-risk use cases – Lombana Diaz emphasizes the need to remain focused on the inherent risks and unintentional harms that AI may present. Part of her role is an ongoing assessment of the technology, identifying risks and limitations and communicating them to different teams.

As AI continues to evolve at speed, so do the roles. Lombana Diaz is passionate about seeing AI beyond the confines of a technology-centric perspective. “AI is now an omnipresent technology shaping our daily lives; hence, we need individuals working in the field who challenge AI technology to be community centric. AI ethics is a space for experimental, open, curious, collaborative, and human-centered individuals,” and, she concludes, “the time to step into AI and build a career is now because, unlike the technology, the business of AI, the legal and ethical aspects, are still being shaped.”

Data Science Engineering 

Dr. Xin Chen, 51ˇçÁ÷HANA Machine Learning, China

“I have always enjoyed working at 51ˇçÁ÷since joining nine years ago. I like the work environment and the colleagues here and I really want to encourage others to join us here in AI,” says Chen, data science researcher on the 51ˇçÁ÷HANA Machine Learning team.

The team works on a toolbox providing different kinds of machine learning algorithms for regression, classification, clustering, and so on for the 51ˇçÁ÷HANA predictive analysis library.

Part of Chen’s role is investigating research papers on the latest machine learning algorithms and, together with the team, deciding which algorithms would be beneficial to customers. Once the machine learning algorithms are implemented, Chen and the team evaluate feedback from customers and deliver enhancements.

Recently Chen and her team researched machine learning algorithms investigating notions of fairness. “Fairness is a very hot topic just now,” she says. “In mathematics, there are different notions of fairness, but it is still a complex and evolving topic.”

And Chen’s advice to would-be AI developers? “Critical thinking will become even more important to understand what solutions to offer, to make judgements on your own innovations, and to know if the generated output is right or wrong,” she says, reflecting on how this skill will become ever more important for future AI developers.

Product Management

Nadine Hoffmann, 51ˇçÁ÷Business AI, Germany

“I translate and I want to fascinate,” says Hoffmann, global AI product manager in the 51ˇçÁ÷Business AI growth area.

Even after more than 20 years at SAP, disruptive ideas and mindset shifts still energize Hoffmann. To be an expert in new technologies, and to be energized and enthused by the constant volume and speed of them, is critical to being successful in the AI product management teams of today because product management is the glue between partners, customers, the field, and development.

“On the one hand,” says Hoffmann, “51ˇçÁ÷has data scientists, software engineers, and researchers taking our software to the next level. And on the other, there are experts defining the legal and ethical guardrails.” Product management must be fluent in both “technical software speak” and “customer speak” to understand desires, pain points, and business processes.

Pivoting between these and aligning customer speak with technical software speak is akin to being aĚý translator, Hoffmann says. Our software will only meet the requirements of customers if there is a common understanding between the teams responsible for the technological development, the legal teams responsible for ethical and legal compliance, and the customer.

Regardless of the latest innovation, Hoffmann says success in product management is “not only about convincing teams and partners about the ease and positiveness of a technology, but also infusing them with a fascination about it so that they become passionate advocates and are intrinsically motivated to find out more by themselves.”

Data Science Engineering

Puntis Palazzolo, AI Strategist & Ethics Lead, 51ˇçÁ÷SuccessFactors, U.S.

“The ethical challenges presented by AI have transcended the scope of individual enterprises, extending beyond entities like SAP. It is crucial that we collaborate with others to collectively address AI’s emerging concerns,” says Palazzolo, who leads the 51ˇçÁ÷SuccessFactors Data Science team.

The team acts as a consulting service on AI use cases for product teams in 51ˇçÁ÷SuccessFactors, analyzing the problem, developing code and algorithms, and building proof-of-concepts. Successful AI use cases are then integrated into 51ˇçÁ÷SuccessFactors solutions.

Much of the data in 51ˇçÁ÷SuccessFactors solutions is sensitive customer data. With the dramatic increase in generative AI use cases, safeguarding customer data must take precedence, Palazzolo says. “Generative AI is a powerful technology that introduces new challenges, such as hallucinations and automated decision-making. In high-risk sectors like HR, we need to explain how we reach certain decisions, especially when we are impacting people’s lives.”

Palazzolo joined 51ˇçÁ÷11 years ago and has been based in Palo Alto, California, since 2013, where she represents 51ˇçÁ÷on – a collaboration of academia and companies, such as Google and NVIDIA, dedicated to developing safe practices and industry-standard benchmarks to improve AI models. 

Her advice to current and would-be AI practitioners? Follow your passion, be ethical, and make your voice heard while we still have time.

“Legislators alone cannot write AI regulations for us because they do not have a full understanding of its complexities,” she says. “We cannot solve all the problems by ourselves, but we must make our voices heard to shape the future of AI.”

Alexa MacDonald is an 51ˇçÁ÷News editor.

According to a , women representation in C-suite supply chain roles has risen from 19% in 2022 to 26% in 2023. Encouragingly, there has also been an increase in the percentage of women in the supply chain workforce, from 39% to 41%. While these are considered positive shifts in the industry, there is a notable lag in the percentage of frontline roles held by women in this space, ranging from 26% to 34% across various leadership levels.

In a recent panel discussion hosted by the 51ˇçÁ÷North America Business Women’s Network and EY Women in SAP, women supply chain leaders shed light on some important trends, challenges, and strategies for advancing women in supply chain.

The discussion was moderated by Lori Foster, managing director for EY 51ˇçÁ÷Consulting. On the panel, I was joined by Etosha Thurman, chief marketing and solutions officer for 51ˇçÁ÷Intelligent Spend & Business Network, Regenia Sanders, partner at EY Business Consulting, and Angelee Tango, manager for EY 51ˇçÁ÷Extended Warehouse Management. Opening remarks were provided by Yolanda Kirksey, 51ˇçÁ÷Alliance leader and director for 51ˇçÁ÷Ariba U.S. Go-to-Market for EY.

A few key strategies emerged from the discussion for how organizations can help to elevate women in supply chain:

1. Support the choice to stay with flexibility

A consequence of the global pandemic was a moment of reassessment for women juggling full-time careers with responsibilities at home. In that moment, many women (and men) chose to shift their priorities outside of work or simply had to make that shift to address the needs at home. What we as business leaders can learn from observing this trend is the need to create environments that support women and accommodate work-life balance.

An important point called out in this panel discussion is that work-life balance looks different for everyone. Organizations must set an expectation of respect and boundaries that allow for all employees to manage the many responsibilities they have outside of work — regardless of marital status, if they have children or grandchildren, or if they are a caregiver in another capacity. A culture supportive of pursuing career aspirations while maintaining a healthy balance in personal life empowers women to effectively set and maintain boundaries as well as seek help when needed.

2. Recruit for top skills to succeed in supply chain roles

The panel named skills like curiosity, customer focus, relationship building, change management, crisis management, and communication as both crucial factors for success in this field and areas in which women tend to excel, citing the . Collaboration was underscored by several panelists as essential. Tango shared, “From determining the technology we want to use to the final stage of implementation, the need to continuously evaluate requires everyone to be on board.”

The panel suggested that having more women engaged in these transformative projects helping facilitate collaboration is a strategic way to support innovation that sticks. As Sanders stated, “Making sure [internal stakeholders’] input is being heard when gathering requirements is a critical difference-maker to having an organization that actually embraces technology versus being intimidated by it.”

3. Provide forums that encourage open discussion

At any stage in your career, it can be helpful to hear of the challenges other women supply chain professionals have faced and how they overcame them. What Foster shared on this topic stood out to me: “It’s easy for people to see where you are today, but not what you went through to get there.” That sense of mutual respect and understanding helps to build confidence.

Role models also play an important role. Thurman spoke to the importance of representation: “Seeing people who look like you and can manage a life like you is important to how we move forward.”

Of the many valuable individual takeaways from this discussion, a few specific pieces of advice resonated with me for women looking to elevate their careers in supply chain:

1. Set and hold boundaries where they make sense for you

You must be willing to reshape your own conceptions of how you need to be perceived and what your role needs to be. Instead of trying to meet this picture-perfect standard, work from an understanding of what you want and need so you can set and maintain reasonable boundaries with a career that requires significant flexibility.

2. Know that you belong and operate in that way

As a woman working in a male-dominated field, it is likely that you will experience moments where you or your contributions are slighted, discounted, or ignored. While we are working to change that behavior, when this happens it’s important to remember to focus on what you want to achieve. If you feel that you are not yet at a point in your career to remedy the situation directly, ask for help.Ěý

3. Use your voice

There is an advantage to being different. If you are one woman in a room of 50 men and you can clearly articulate your point well, you will be remembered. As you build your brand, opportunities will follow. And when you have the chance to support other women in your field, lend your voice to advocate, guide, and champion the next generation of leaders.

There is a lot that we can learn from each other, in and across industries. These leaders conveyed inspiring journeys in their supply chain careers where they have encountered and continue to navigate a wide spectrum of challenges, but also have found fulfillment in this line of work. This open discussion represented a significant stride toward acknowledging the challenges, opportunities, and collective efforts needed to empower and elevate women in supply chain.

As these forums continue, my hope is that they will not only support and inspire women through a vast network of supply chain professionals, but also drive toward a more equitable and inclusive supply chain landscape.

Darcy MacClaren is chief revenue officer for 51ˇçÁ÷Digital Supply Chain.

A Chance MeetingĚý

After signing up to a work-and-travel program, Kyzy came to Germany in the summer of 2019. She and a friend worked as catering staff at weddings, festivals, and hotels. But Kyzy soon found the irregular shifts stressful and asked her employer for a job with fixed working hours.

That took her to one of SAP’s cafeterias in Walldorf, where she worked as a kitchen assistant. When asked about her first impressions of the company, she said, “I just thought, ‘Wow! 51ˇçÁ÷is huge and there are so many young, interesting people here!’” The company’s size, culture, and dynamic working environment captured her imagination and planted ideas in her mind about a future career.

She had not been in her new job long before – completely by coincidence – she met an 51ˇçÁ÷employee who was also from Kyrgyzstan and who motivated her to study in Germany. “She inspired me. She had a similar background to mine. She’d started out working as an au pair in Germany and went on to study here. She was amazing and she told me, ‘I did it, so can you!’”

After this chance encounter, Kyzy’s mind was made up: she wanted to follow a work-study degree program in IT in Germany. But she had to learn German first. Little did she know what obstacles lay ahead.

The Pandemic StrikesĚý

When her work-and-travel visa ended, Kyzy returned home to Kyrgyzstan to continue her studies. But as she observed, “Corruption is a problem in higher education in Kyrgyzstan, and it seemed to me that grades were not necessarily awarded on merit,” she said. She had always dreamed of studying abroad – even as a child. “I’d given up on that idea long ago, to be honest, but my experiences in Germany and at 51ˇçÁ÷suddenly made me reconsider. I decided to give it a go!”

She arrived back in Germany as an au pair in 2020. But no sooner had she taken that vital step closer to her goal than reports of the country’s first case of coronavirus came through. Everything changed in an instant. Lockdowns, masks, and social distancing followed. No one could have predicted that the pandemic would drag on for three whole years.

It was a tough time for Kyzy. Her voice tailed off for a moment as she thought back, though her determined tones soon returned: “No matter how hard it was, I was not going to give up. The most difficult part was being stuck at home. But I wanted to protect my host family and myself.”

The Power of a Clear GoalĚý

The German course she was supposed to attend was canceled. Undeterred, she told herself that if she wanted to study here, she needed to speak, read, and understand the language well. So, she began teaching herself. With the help of language Web sites and YouTube videos, she learned the basics, getting up at 8:00 a.m. every day to spend three or four hours studying.

She was often troubled by doubts and the fear of failure. “Will I get a visa?” she wondered. “Will I really manage to learn German? Will I pass the German language test?”

How then – despite all the difficulties – did Kyzy stay motivated, day after day, to pursue her dream? “I told myself that if the worst came to the worst I would return to Kyrgyzstan and pick up my life there again,” she said. That thought helped relieve the pressure and allowed her to focus on her goal.

During this time she also started learning the Java programming language at an IT academy. Slowly but surely, she was making progress. In 2021, as part of the German government’s volunteer service program, she worked at the country’s central agency for continuing vocational education and training in the skilled crafts. There, she learned about the Drupal content management system and developed a Web site with a colleague. This experience fired her enthusiasm for the IT industry and gave her the confidence she needed.

Today – just like the colleague who encouraged her – Kyzy does all she can to motivate young people to realize their dreams. “Lots of people are scared of failure. But you have to take things step by step. You have to be brave and do what you need to do. Follow your passions. Follow your dreams!”

All the effort and sacrifices paid off. In 2021, Kyzy achieved her goal and embarked on a work-study degree program in IT at SAP. René Wohllebe is a vocational training manager and Kyzy’s supervisor. “Malbina is a fantastic example of a young woman who is passionate about IT and proud to work for SAP,” he said. “We are very lucky that she – and many other young women like her – want to train with us and shape the company’s future.”

But even now, in 2023, there are still too few women in IT. The industry needs them desperately – yet traditional gender-role stereotypes persist. Campaigns such as Girls’ Day or cooperation with schools are some of the ways in which 51ˇçÁ÷is trying to get women interested in technology at an early age.

The work-study degree program is structured to allow students to rotate through as many as six different practical phases. This means that they get to work on a wide variety of projects and try their hand at a range of different tasks. Kyzy is currently working in the 51ˇçÁ÷Enterprise Cloud Services organization, which supports companies migrating to the cloud. Here, she has carried out a requirements analysis for the introduction of a new tool. “51ˇçÁ÷is a great place to work. It allows me to try new things and grow professionally,” she said. She’s already looking forward to the next stop on her learning journey: consulting.

Globally, women are becoming and holding public office for longer than in the past. increased from 33.3% in 2016 to 36.9% in 2022, while between 2006 and 2022 women in ministerial positions increased from 9.9% to 16.1%. Although no country has achieved full gender parity, Iceland leads the top 10 economies in closing that gap at 90.8%.

But there is so much more to do.

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It is estimated that at the current rate of progress, achieving gender parity before the year 2155 is increasingly unlikely. This shocking statistic should concern everyone, not just those interested in women’s advancement. Investing in diversity is not just a nice thing to do; it is a business imperative. Companies that are focused on diversity outperform their non-diverse competitors, earning per employee. And it’s no wonder, when we know that diversity helps companies build better products, develop deeper solutions, create valuable experiences for employees, and deliver more lasting results that mirror our diverse world.

Supporting a Diverse STEM Workforce

51ˇçÁ÷is keenly aware of the unique challenges women and girls face worldwide, but particularly women in tech. Women continue to struggle for representation in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, making up approximately 28% of the STEM workforce today. 51ˇçÁ÷has invested internally and externally in programs that help existing and potential female employees grow and thrive in their careers. Some examples include our Business Women’s Network, which has more than 90 chapters and 17,000 members worldwide; our internal development programs that help women gain visibility to senior leadership in their career journeys; the in North America, which allows us to remove barriers for mid-career professionals returning to workforce through a 20-week “returnship”; and finally our many partnerships, including supporting the , aimed at growing the number of women and non-binary people in technology.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme, “,” closely aligns with SAP’s corporate and business objectives.Ěý​We’re proud that in the last five years, we have made sustained and incremental progress in workforce diversity. We achieved our goal of 35% women in our workforce and increased the number of women in management from 25.5% in 2017 to 29.4% at the close of 2022. In addition, in 2023, 51ˇçÁ÷was reinstated to the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, which recognizes a commitment to advancing women in the workplace.

Reaching these goals reflects real progress in our recruitment, hiring, and retention practices, as well as in the hearts and minds of our employees and leadership. We’re dedicated to leading the change when it comes to diversity. And yet we’re not finished. To get to 50/50 parity, we must continually push for change and encourage other companies, organizations, and governments to do the same.

The Next Frontier

This is an exciting and challenging time for tech. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT from OpenAI are spurring conversations about the future of work and are being leveraged to make business-critical decisions. As these tools become more readily accessible, their usage, as well as potential misuse, will increase. We know is a result of those who develop it but by working together to combat this, we can actually advance D&I goals. Companies like Eightfold.ai, a talent platform and 51ˇçÁ÷SuccessFactors customer, saw a 19% increase in hiring of external female candidates by eliminating bias through AI to help companies meet their diversity goals. This positive outcome is just one exciting example of how we can use tech for good to advance D&I initiatives.

We have 365 days until the next International Women’s Day. This time next year, what will you have done in your company, community, and even your own family to advance diverse and inclusive behaviors? How can you be the change you want to see? I look forward to hearing your story.

Supriya Jha is chief diversity and inclusion officer at SAP.

Inclusion is a choice and a commitment, while belonging is a feeling that results from our actions. To strive for inclusion, 51ˇçÁ÷leads with compassion, support, and acceptance for all backgrounds and aims for diversity in all fields.

51ˇçÁ÷is committed to full spectrum diversity, inclusive of gender, age, race, ethnicity, orientation, ability, nationality, religion, veteran status, background, culture, experience, strengths, and perspectives. Living up to this commitment, 51ˇçÁ÷engages in a broad range of initiatives, promoting diversity, inclusion, and equality — including programs that foster more gender equality in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) studies and the tech industry.

51ˇçÁ÷at Grace Hopper Celebration

A recent example of SAP’s efforts in the field is the ,Ěý the largest assembly of female technologists in the world and a conference that empowers women to pursue STEM careers in the name of Grace Hopper (1906-1992), an American computer scientist, pioneer in the field of data science, and one of the first females to rebuff stigmas attached to womankind. Grace Hopper Celebration 2022 ran from September 16 through 23 in Orlando, Florida.

As proud collaborator of the Grace Hopper Celebration, the Chief Trust office at 51ˇçÁ÷sponsored a skills development lab aimed to equip young women with the skills to succeed, be seen, and be hired in tech roles. The workshop, called “51ˇçÁ÷ElevateHer Pitch Challenge” and held September 21, was a career development skills-building exercise. For one hour, 51ˇçÁ÷worked with approximately 400 attendees on site to masterfully craft their own personal elevator pitches to use in interviews or networking settings. Using the motto “Pitch Us With Your Shot,” the workshop infused gaming techniques with the challenge to further refine the participants’ skills.

Why are workshops and skills development labs like this one so important? Only 15 to 22% of professionals in data science-related roles are women, an under-representation in the field. This poses a constraint on talent for companies that are hiring, as data science is susceptible to bias and a wide range of views and expertise is essential for drawing relevant real-life connections. Data science and artificial intelligence (AI) becoming more ubiquitous by the day further fuels the issue.

In response, we need to lay a foundation for the next generation by creating equal opportunities and access to knowledge and skills. Promotion and communication amount to nothing if the status of unequal access is further perpetuated. To create a sustainable and long-lasting impact, aspiring data scientists need to connect with practitioners and role models.

51ˇçÁ÷at WiDS

Dedicated to creating this kind of exchange, in May 2022, . The program was introduced by Stanford University in 2015 and has developed into a global movement inspiring people all over the world. Its efforts include conferences, data-thons, podcasts, educational outreach programs, and workshops, and its goal is to advocate for data scientists worldwide to educate themselves regardless of their gender and despite barriers they must overcome. 51ˇçÁ÷has been a proud collaborator and sponsor since 2016.

This year, participants were taken on a virtual data science tour from Tokyo to Palo Alto. Around 50 female data scientists joined forces and delivered live content on the matter for more than 10 hours. Thanks to the female forerunners’ efforts and insights on topics such as AI, machine learning, data engineering, and human-centric data, approximately 700 participants were engaged in all corners of the world.

During her panel discussion, 51ˇçÁ÷Labs India Managing Director Sindhu Gangadharan said, “Data is the new gold in the digital economy and businesses are experiencing a gold rush. We need women to play a much bigger role in shaping the future of the data science domain. Women and data science are a perfect match. Data science needs skills that women bring to the table — insights as well as their perspectives.”

When asked about the lack of women in leadership positions in Asia, 51ˇçÁ÷Labs Japan Managing Director Hiromi Hara stated that women should make use of flexible work arrangements and not feel held back by gender roles.

Rising to the challenge, 51ˇçÁ÷has been named one of , but the path to inclusion does not end here. To bring everyone to the table, 51ˇçÁ÷is making a proactive choice to be integrative and going the extra mile through programs such as “Empower Her,” the initiative, and the Business Women’s Network.

Another initiative supporting these endeavors is the recent . To level the playing field, 51ˇçÁ÷funds student memberships in Women in Cyber Security (WiCyS) and contributes to creating accessible and affordable experiential learning opportunities for the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.

The barriers for women in STEM careers persist, however. Inclusion is a never-ending job, a never-ending responsibility to be carried by companies. As Mary Shinn, managing director of 51ˇçÁ÷Korea, put it: “Through working in the field, we become role models for our children.” If the outlook of an inclusive tomorrow free from social constructs does not prove the value of a general feeling of belonging in the workplace today, what could?

While there is certainly progress, there is obviously still plenty of work that needs to be done. Working in the technology sector as a woman, I am regularly reminded about the gender gap in the industry, especially when it comes to the talent pipeline.

For instance, in 2018, according to from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, only 20% of bachelor’s degrees in computer science were awarded to women, down from 27% in 1998. The numbers are even starker if you look at minority women. In 2018, of all the computer science degrees awarded, approximately went to Black and Hispanic women.

This is worrisome. Many of the fastest growing and best paying jobs are in these fields. Comb through and you’ll find titles such as software architect, data warehouse architect, cloud engineer, data scientist, and full stack developer all within the top 40.

There are other adverse implications to this. The more homogeneous a workforce, the greater the risk of hiring or affinity biases. Another example is the growing pervasiveness of artificial intelligence (AI) in our professional and personal lives. It’s imperative that these programs are being developed in a way that accurately reflects the diversity of humanity. The consequences could be disastrous otherwise.

The Market Gap in Education

As an executive leader at a major technology company whose father was the first in his family to graduate from college while simultaneously working full-time, I often ask myself what steps are being done to tackle the problem of college degree attainment and pay parity in the workforce. Working at an organization that fully embraces diversity, and seeing the inherent value that it brings, has only bolstered my resolve on this topic.

I was very fortunate to end up where I have. My parents sacrificed a lot so that my brother and I could have access to the best education. Higher education has opened so many doors in my life, and I will be forever grateful for that. Not everyone has these same opportunities, though.

There remains a huge market gap in support for low-income students throughout their educational journey. Countless numbers of students run into roadblocks trying to finish their education. While there is a plethora of programs available to help students gain admission to college, there are not enough available to help them finish college.

The Last Mile Education Fund

This is where the — an organization we’re proud to be supporting with a $500,000 donation over the next two years — comes in. The solutions Last Mile brings to the problem are original and effective.

Ruthe Farmer is the founder and CEO of Last Mile and brings more than two decades of experience and expertise to this topic. (.) Before founding Last Mile, Farmer was Senior Policy Advisor for Tech Inclusion at the White House Office of Science and Technology policy under the Obama administration and served as chief evangelist at CSforAll, among other distinctions.

As Farmer explained to me, through a disruptive approach, Last Mile is focused on getting low-income women and students not into college, but through college to graduation.

“Everyone was so focused on getting students into college, but no one was making sure low-income talent was getting out,” said Farmer, discussing how the organization was founded. “I saw students struggling over trivial things, like trying to commute to an internship or checking into a hotel.”

Last Mile’s mandate is to invest in degree completion for striving, low-income, technical women. Farmer very intentionally uses the word investing. As she put it, “I don’t think this is charity. I view this more as venture capital, because the ROI is more talent into the tech workforce, with these graduates earning $47,000 more on average in six to 12 months compared to having some college but no degree.”

Last Mile provides of funding for post-secondary students, from under-$600 emergency grants all the way through the largest investment, which covers up to $10,000 for things like tuition or living expenses for their final term. Last Mile’s investments are somewhat atypical too, allowing coverage for things like car repairs, family obligations, or medical expenses.

“They are solving problems that are urgent and can make or break a student,” said Katie Booth, head of 51ˇçÁ÷North America Corporate Social Responsibility. “The students who are being invested in are incredibly motivated. They are on track to graduate in the most challenging majors out there. One of the reasons we’re supporting Last Mile is that so many students are 90% of the way there. We want to see them finish college.”

What Success Looks Like

In one success story, a student who was valedictorian of her high school received scholarships for college, but still had a gap in tuition coverage. To make ends meet, she was working three jobs. When the pandemic hit, she reached out to Last Mile, explaining that she was $5,000 short for her tuition, which was preventing her from registering for her final semester and putting her at risk of graduating on time. Also at risk was the career-launching job she had waiting for her.

Last Mile stepped in to help. As a result, this student graduated on time and was able to start her career. This $5,000 “made a huge difference in her life,” said Farmer. “I imagine there are thousands of students for whom the pandemic completely derailed their educational paths and futures.”

Last Mile’s mentality is nicely summed up by Farmer: “Money in means students out.”

Farmer cited another example of a student walking a financial tightrope, juggling three jobs as well as school, who suffered a setback when her car broke down and she needed a new transmission — something that would set her back $3,000. Last Mile stepped in, and even went beyond, helping to pay her rent. This person was able to recently graduate and start at a major technology company. What’s more, she started to invest back into Last Mile just four months after graduating — another vision of the organization as its alumni go on to succeed in tech.

The Vision

The ultimate ambition for Last Mile is to hit $60 million in funding. With this, it estimates it can positively impact the lives of 23,000 students, yielding $2.15 billion in wages for low-income women by 2031.

As of now, the organization has commitments of $17 million, and that has already allowed it to do some amazing work. Examples include many stories like the ones shared above, but also doing things like paying off the student debt for tech graduates, .

“The sunk cost from low-income students not finishing college is so great, as much as $475,000 per student. Why not spend an extra $5,000? If they don’t finish, it’s like lighting money on fire. If they do, they pay taxes, they contribute to diversity of thought, they can pay their student debt. If they don’t graduate, we all lose,” said Farmer.

“The long-term plan is working with companies of all sizes as a recruiting play. What will endear you to students more: a water bottle at a career fair or the fact that you stepped up to pay their rent or other expenses during their critical senior year?”

With our donation, we’re thrilled to be contributing to an organization so dedicated to closing this market gap, as well as the gender and socioeconomic gap it has helped manifest in the technology industry. Only around from the bottom two income quartiles earn a degree within six years of starting college. Last Mile sees that 80% as a high ROI opportunity to increase diversity in tech.

To date Last Mile has provided over 1,400 grants to support students who are 39% African American, 24% Hispanic, 18% Asian, 11% White and three percent Native American/Alaskan Native/Pacific Islander.

Learn more or get involved at and :

Anamarie Franc is managing director of 51ˇçÁ÷Labs in the U.S.

Now with over 27 years of experience in tech and mentoring women, I have learned many things that I wish I could tell my younger self.

Take Risks and Question the Status Quo

The most important thing I would say to myself is this: take risks. In my experience, women always have the tendency to think that they are not ready for the job. An oft-cited Hewlett Packard study found that men will apply for jobs that interest them, whereas most women only apply for jobs if they meet 100% of the requirements.

But the fact is this: we grow when we challenge the status quo, push our boundaries, and take risks. While you may not have a particular skill, it’s important to test your limits and reach out for that new challenge. That steep learning curve may seem daunting at first, but that’s exactly what will get you to the next level. Moving out of your comfort zone will break barriers for you, your team, and other women.

Once you’re on the job, it’s important to be visible and speak up, but remember to be your authentic self. Just like leaving your comfort zone, staying true to yourself creates more space for you and other women to be assertive at work.

Challenge Bias

The second piece of advice is to challenge existing biases. As someone who has sat on hiring boards, I’ve seen firsthand that many leaders tend to have an unconscious similarity bias. They tend to hire people who are similar to them in interests, ethnic background, and other factors.

We need to challenge that in two ways. First, for those of us that are leaders, we must become more aware of our own hiring choices and make a commitment to hire and promote diverse views and skills. As Albert Einstein said, “We must not only learn to tolerate our differences. We must welcome them, as the richness and diversity can lead to true intelligence.”

Second, we need to promote intelligent technologies in our hiring and other talent management processes that can help uproot unconscious bias. For example, Ěýsolutions help flag prejudice across different parts of human resources activities including recruiting, compensation, and performance calibration.

Businesses need to increase diversity not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because they owe it to their stakeholders. Consider this: Credit Suisse Research Institute that companies with one or more female board members had higher average ROI and better average growth than companies with male-only boards.

Creating individual and operational change that supports gender – and other forms of – diversity is a win-win for everyone.

Pursue Your Passion

The last piece of advice I would give is pursue your passion. As clichĂŠ as it sounds, passion is what will get you ahead. Women tend to have a lot more self-doubt compared to men, which may cause them to second guess their ability to succeed in fields like STEM.

Although women are still highly underrepresented in STEM professions, it is encouraging to see that share steadily grow over the years. As per a U.S. census report, the share of women in STEM increased from 8% in 1970 to 27% in 2019.Ěý Women should continue to be role models and continue to encourage more girls to take up careers in STEM.Ěý I am glad that I have been actively doing this at home as well as via my mentoring program. For example, I encouraged my elder daughter to pursue her interests in math and science, and she recently completed her master’s degree in data science.

Shutting out self-doubt is easier said than done. But in my experience, if women pour their energy into the things that excite them intellectually and stay focused on the results, it will lead to personal and professional growth.

Finally, looking back on my career, I was fortunate to have fantastic female role models. I admired their grit, energy, desire to make a difference, and their ability to navigate a male-dominated business world. Although I can’t truly give advice to my younger self, I hope through my leadership and mentoring I can pass on the advice and skills that I’ve cultivated to ambitious young women who are ready to leverage their passion and take the risks. The world is ready for them.

Aneesha Shenoy is senior vice president and chief operating officer for 51ˇçÁ÷Business Technology Platform.

Women are not only involved, they are taking charge of sustainability initiatives with innovative solutions that address climate risk. UN Women — the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women — recognizes that it is more important than ever to honor these achievements.

SAP’s recognition and celebration of International Women’s DayĚý 2022 underscores the theme: “Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow.”

Together with the global Business Women’s Network (BWN) and UN Women, 51ˇçÁ÷will celebrate International Women’s Day with employees, customers, and partners on March 8.

The BWN is an employee-driven network at 51ˇçÁ÷that helps women advance their careers and the company’s business. By sharing professional insights, best practices, education, and experience, BWN helps develop skills and career-advancing opportunities to drive SAP’s success. The network strives to make a global impact with the help of more than 90 chapters and over 15,000 members worldwide.Ěý

Join us to hear from compelling speakers about women empowerment and innovative technology that are key to enable a sustainable future for all of us.

The conference will begin with remarks from Sabine Bendiek, chief people and operating officer and member of the Executive Board of 51ˇçÁ÷SE.

A keynote session by Supriya Jha, chief diversity and inclusion officer at SAP, and Daniel Seymour, director for UN Women’s Strategic Partnerships Division, will follow.

The agenda also includes eminent speakers from various organizations and from SAP, including Sindhu Gangadharan, senior vice president and managing director of 51ˇçÁ÷Labs India, and Julia White, chief marketing and solutions officer and member of the Executive Board of 51ˇçÁ÷SE.

• Change Makers: Women Empowering a Sustainable Future
  Tuesday, March 8
  7:00 a.m. PT | 10:00 a.m. ET | 4:00 p.m. CET | 8:30 p.m. IST
  

Whenever she mentioned her dream to her family and other people, their response was always the same: “You’re just a little girl, you can’t do that, don’t you want think about something else?” Although it was clear from her schoolwork that she was talented, people still doubted her abilities. Everyone, apart from her teacher, would tell her that studying math was a bad idea. Reactions like these were a constant source of frustration for Sarah: “You have pull through that, even though it’s quite hard work. I knew that’s what I really wanted to do, and that’s why I moved forward, no matter what anyone else said. And now I’m pretty glad that I did.”

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In fact, Sarah completed a doctorate in mathematics and is now a data scientist at SAP. It is her job to help customers make the most of their data, gain insights, and create predictions, enabling them to make better business decisions. “Basically, I’m living the dream I had as a little girl – I get to talk about mathematics the entire day,” she says.

Beating Stereotypes with Humor

Even as a professional, Sarah still encounters stereotyping. She is often the only woman in the room at customer meetings. Sometimes, on being introduced to clients, they automatically assume that one of her male colleagues must be Dr. Detzler the data scientist. “Humor is the best way of handling those situations,” Sarah notes. “Knowing your stuff helps too. When I hold a presentation, after the first five minutes no one has any doubt that I am the data scientist in the room.”

The fact that data and numbers offer a neutral and objective perspective strikes a chord with Sarah – especially because she has experienced bias and is acutely aware of it. Erik Kandel, a neuroscientist and Nobel laureate, estimated that between 80% and 90% of our mind works unconsciously, which means that most of our cognitive processes are based on unconscious conclusions. Sarah says: “Getting this neutral look from the data and seeing that there really is a bias and we can do something about it, or seeing, reflected from the data, how wrong our bias is, that’s something that really excites me and that I didn’t see in any other job.”

Teamwork with a Superhero

Sarah works full-time, her husband part-time. He stayed at home to look after their daughter for the first year after she was born. “It was a natural decision for us, since I was keen to return to work and he enjoys working part-time,” Sarah explains. Though they share tasks, her husband takes on most of the childcare and housework. “My husband is my superhero,“ she says. “We are a great team, the three of us, and this is the only way this can work.”

Being able to do her job from home and fit her hours around caring for her child makes life a lot easier for Sarah and her family. “I really appreciate the flexibility, since it allows me to balance work and family, and spend a lot of time with my daughter,” she adds.

Inspiring Girls to Think Big

She often thinks back to when she was six years old and mad about math. If only there had been female role models to follow and who she could point to and say that women are mathematicians too. But there were hardly any. At university, she was one of just two women on her undergraduate course, and later one of only three PhD students. It was a situation that left Sarah feeling isolated. That is why she encourages young girls whenever she can. “I want to say to them: ‘other women have made it and you can too.’”

Sarah is keen for her daughter to grow up knowing that there are no barriers. She can be an ABAP developer in the cloud, become a data scientist, or embark on a different technical career. “If she wants to do something else, that’s also perfectly fine, but I want it to be her decision. And for her to know that she can do whatever she wants in life.”

She started dancing at the age of five and was considered a child prodigy in her native India. Everything she did came easily to her: dance, school, her master’s degree in banking. At 22 she became the youngest branch manager to head a CitiFinancial branch in Mumbai. “All I had experienced in my life was success and accolades. It felt like the movies,” she says.

Then, about 10 years ago, her husband received an offer to work for 51ˇçÁ÷in Germany. Divya agreed to the move without hesitation. In her childhood, her family had moved every two or three years because of her father’s job. “Exploring something unknown has always been very exciting for me. This is part of my personality,” says Divya.

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Never Give Up

But Germany was a different space. Divya didn’t know anyone and didn’t speak the language at first. “I wanted to adapt to my new environment and also make sure my toddler felt comfortable and could make friends.” Divya had become a mother in 2009 and wanted to be with her child completely in the first years of his life, enjoying every single milestone.

But when her son started going to kindergarten, Divya faced the toughest time of her life. The former child prodigy, the dancer, the successful banker felt, “I couldn’t just be home, I had more energy to give.” A piece of advice from her mother helped her come out of it. “It will feel cold when you’re thrown into it, just stick around there, take it as a challenge.” Determined to teach Indian dance, she navigated her way through the German bureaucratic maze to understand what was required to work as a freelance dance teacher. But she didn’t give up. She’s now been teaching classical Indian dance to local students for over 10 years.

Trying to get back into her career in banking also felt like swimming upstream. Rejection letters became a very common thing for her. “I had to face that moment when I was going through failure at a rate that I had never known before, when I was being judged for what I was not, when I didn’t have a place to prove myself. This has given me so much empathy that I can really relate to people who are going through it,” she says.

Learning Was a Constant

Divya has been a permanent employee at 51ˇçÁ÷since 2019 and now works as a product manager in the 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud area. Part of her job is to educate customers, partners, and internal colleagues on the value of 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud. She has also recently started working on the product strategy side. “Of course, I do need to understand the technology to be able to sell the value, but not having an engineering background should never be a showstopper.”

Bringing Empathy to Work

Divya’s art form, Bharatanatyam, represents nine basic emotions. The dancer’s role is to observe, understand, and explore every single layer of these emotions. For Divya, this is her bridge between the creative and the corporate worlds. “Bringing empathy and emotion to work – or, as we say at SAP, helping the world run better and improving people’s lives – that’s exactly the strength I bring,” she says. In conversations, she always tries to put herself in the shoes of customers or colleagues. “It’s about showing the customer that you care. Most customers don’t leave a supplier because of the product itself, but because they’re feeling they are not being cared for enough.”

As in her art, she plays many roles in life. She’s a product manager, an artist, a teacher, a wife, a mother, and a daughter. “And I feel that amidst all this, I’m still Divya,” she says. “I have this innate happiness within me that forms the core of what I am. And that’s helped go through the storm or calm. It’s this small little quotient of bliss that I have that’s always been my essence.”

Svea first trained as a business administrator. She then began a university degree – only to abandon her studies to try her hand as a tourist resort entertainer instead. That ended when she and her partner relocated from northern Germany to Heidelberg in the south, where, as a certified fitness instructor, she began teaching exercise classes. Ěý

After a while, it was time for something newĚýonce again, and Svea joined 51ˇçÁ÷in WalldorfĚýwhereĚýshe worked as a team and management assistantĚýfor 17 years. Being a great organizer, Svea loved supporting her team and manager so they could focus on theirĚýmain priorities.ĚýIt wasĚýaĚýrole that suitedĚýher at the time.ĚýWithĚýa young family to bring up,ĚýherĚýexperience and routineĚýat work helped her balance work and family life.Ěý

For 17 years,ĚýsheĚýwas also the team’s chief problem-solver.Ěý“Whenever someone wants to know how to do something, they ask the team assistant,”Ěýshe says.ĚýShe moved departments several times,Ěýswitching between being a management assistant and a personal assistant.ĚýUntil,Ěýat some point,Ěýit no longer felt right. Svea longed for a new perspective.Ěý

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Jumping Over Career HurdlesĚý

When a chance to do something new came along, she jumped at it. At the time, she was working as a team assistant for 51ˇçÁ÷Community, an online network connecting three million people who work with 51ˇçÁ÷– customers, partners, and employees. One of the managers there offered her a job as an 51ˇçÁ÷Community advocate.Ěý

51ˇçÁ÷Community advocates moderate discussions, share content, encourage community members to share ideas, onboard new members, and much more. Advocates need to be communications experts, but they do not have to be technology specialists.Ěý

For the first time in her career, Svea was planning and devising projects all on her own.ĚýShe found herself on a steep learning curve.Ěý“At first IĚýfelt out of my depth, I simply didn’t know how to go about it,” she says.Ěý“Learning to work autonomously was the biggest hurdle. Now it’s what I love most about the job.”ĚýĚý

The nextĚýhurdleĚýwasĚýholding presentations in her second language, English. When it comes to sport,ĚýSveaĚýnever turns down aĚýchallenge. But speaking a foreign language in front of an audienceĚýwas the one thing that would make her nervous: “On the outside, I’d appear to be totally at ease.ĚýSoĚýI’d tell myself that noĚýone could see that my heart was pounding.”ĚýĚý

Today, Svea is just as confident when presenting in English. “I never completed my studies, but I have seized every opportunity, worked hard, and faced up to every challenge. What I’m most proud of is the fact that I’m now in a senior role,” she says.Ěý

Finding Your PassionĚý

Assistants, especially management assistants, oftenĚýmustĚýfollowĚýtheirĚýmanager’s schedule.ĚýThe role is still predominantly female, withĚýĚýshowingĚýthat 95.4%Ěýof assistantsĚýare women.Ěý

The job as an 51ˇçÁ÷Community advocate offers Svea greater independence and the flexibility to set her own schedule, which, alongside being able to work from home, is a big help when it comes to juggling family and career.

During the pandemic, Svea discovered something else that helps her deal with everyday life: “Meditation helps me stay focused and calm, given the challenges of homeschooling and home office, and it lets me reflect on the day.” It is now part of her daily routine. She is also active in SAP’s mindfulness program as an 51ˇçÁ÷mindfulness ambassador and offers meditation classes.

Svea advisesĚýyounger peopleĚýstarting out on their careersĚýto find their passion. “Maybe that’s why I changed jobs so often – I wasn’t doing what I really wanted to do,”Ěýshe says.Ěý“But now I am. I love working forĚý51ˇçÁ÷Community because I’m in contact with so many people all over the world, and I really enjoy that.”

Svea has gotten to where she wanted to be.

“I come from a culture where women still don’t have the right to decide for themselves,” she says. “It wasn’t easy for me to come into a very free, open society — to stand up for myself and speak for myself, to feel independent, to feel confident. For me, it was a long journey.”

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Limited Career Options

Tannaz’s journey began in the Iranian capital of Tehran. As a child, she sometimes thought it would be much better for her parents if she were a boy – the eldest son rather than the eldest daughter. The message she got from society, university, and school was, she says, “OK. You’re a woman. You can study, maybe work, but it’s not important to have career ambitions. The important thing is that you’re going to be a mother and that you listen to your husband.”

Contrary to social norms in Iran at the time, Tannaz’s parents were keen for their three daughters to study and work. Tannaz chose a career in accounting because she loves math and numbers. At the time, accounting was also one of the few professions that were acceptable for women in Iran. Today, reports the , more than 60% of university students in Iran are female. However, this is not reflected in equal representation in the workforce, as of Iranian women are employed.

After working for several years in Tehran, Tannaz decided on a life in Germany. “I was important for me to have freedom and to move forward in my life, and I didn’t see the opportunity for that in Iran,” she says, though she is careful to note that is purely her own experience and she can’t speak for other women and girls from Iran or the Middle East.

51ˇçÁ÷Was Not On Her Radar

Tannaz met her future husband while still in Iran, moved to Germany with him, completed an MBA in international finance and controlling, and worked until her son was born.

When she was looking to return to employment a few years later, however, the situation was complicated. “As the mother of a small child, I wasn’t able to work full time,” she remembers. “But the companies I applied to wouldn’t even consider part-time employment.” Except 51ˇçÁ÷in Walldorf, where she was offered a part-time (75%) post. “51ˇçÁ÷wasn’t on my radar at all to start with,” she says. “I thought they only needed software developers.”

Tannaz started at 51ˇçÁ÷in project management and controlling. “After a few years, I found that working as a controller and in reporting wasn’t the only thing I can do. I can lead teams and bring people together,” she says. She tried her hand at various roles, working as a project lead and as a scrum master before exploring agile transformation and training at 51ˇçÁ÷to become an agile coach.

Flexiblity for a Single Mother

That sounds like a smooth career journey. Rewind four years, when Tannaz and her husband decided to separate, and things were far from easy. Suddenly, in her late thirties, she was a single, working mother and completely on her own for the first time in her life. She and her son moved into a new apartment when his new school year began. The challenge then was that he wanted her to be there when he got home from school, often at completely different times of the day. The new situation required her to be very flexible, and Tannaz, who was back to working full-time, needed support from her colleagues and her manager.

“For me, and in my situation, 51ˇçÁ÷plays a major role in my journey towards independence and in the way I live and the person I am right now. When I decided to live my life as a single mom, I knew that I’d have the support of my employer, and that helped me to make the decision and to go this way.”

Now, several years later, she says, “I can organize my working day very effectively. My son is almost 14 now and much more independent. We’re a team.”

Managing People Is Her Thing

Today, Tannaz co-leads the 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA Agile Center of Excellence, a role that includes managing people. “Leading a team and achieving something together makes me unbelievably happy,” she says. “Right now, I’m really happy that I can decide on my own about my life, my career, my child,” says Tannaz.

For her parents, who are getting older, Tannaz has become the go-to person. “Now I can say that being a daughter and living my life the way I’m living it is a big help to them.”

During the keynote session, Morgan spoke with , senior editor at Fortune Magazine, about the need for leaders to stay humble and open, creating a strong workplace culture, and her thoughts on women in leadership.

Morgan described the moment she became co-CEO as humbling and explained why seeking out constant learning is so important. “Early in our careers, we think that everyone in a leadership role has everything figured out,” she said. “But as you progress, you realize how much more of a student you need to be.”

That said, Morgan believes that she and Co-CEO Christian Klein both bring a deep and complementary knowledge of the business that informs a shared vision for SAP’s future. “We have a very common vision for the company and where we need to go,” Morgan said. “And having been an operator in the business, it gives you real insight into the challenges and opportunities you have.”

Besides shared aspirations for the company, trust and unity are critical. “Leadership takes time,” she said. “In companies today, people have to come together not just at the leadership level, but across all parts of an organization.”

Integration is top of mind for SAP, which has made several large acquisitions in the past decade. For Morgan, successful integration requires a different approach to communications. Too often, she said, leaders focus on the “what” versus explaining the “why,” which can make it challenging for employees to align with transformation.

She also explained that executives often focus on making organizational changes that will help achieve business goals, but that it starts with communication. “Just telling employees the ‘what’ without the ‘why’ in today’s world undermines what you’re trying to do,” she said.

With International Women’s Day coming up, McGirt referenced a study just released by the , which found that more than 40 percent of people in 75 countries think men make better executives than women. Since 51ˇçÁ÷operates in many of those countries, she and Morgan discussed how a female CEO can help shift those beliefs.

Morgan addressed the delicate balance needed for women leaders to be role models. “It’s really important to me to be recognized for my leadership, not my gender,” she said. “At the same time, I underestimated how many younger women and underrepresented minorities look to people like me who are in these positions.”

Morgan said she recognizes that “it’s important for people to see people like them and to give them hope — and have that become an example that’s real and actionable.” She also emphasized the important role men play in advancing women in leadership, particularly in countries with more entrenched gender norms. “I make sure that men are part of these conversations. Men do want to be part of the solution, so we need to pull them in and say it’s okay to help advocate,” she said.

The event was organized by Great Place to Work, a company that researches, assesses, and ranks companies based on factors like diversity and inclusion, culture, trust, and region. 51ˇçÁ÷America has been certified as a for four consecutive years and is ranked on several of the organization’s lists. 51ˇçÁ÷SuccessFactors was a sponsor for the event.

Both Morgan and , president of 51ˇçÁ÷North America, received leadership awards from Great Place to Work honoring their efforts to create a first-rate company culture.

Dr. Judith Williams, chief diversity and inclusion officer and head of People Sustainability at SAP, also spoke at the event. She explained the business and moral imperatives for diversity, as well as how to identify and root out unconscious bias.

In 2007, she co-founded the Business Women’s Network (BWN) at SAP, a grassroots initiative that now has more than 10,000 members across 60 chapters. The network supports women in gaining new skills and pursuing successful career paths at SAP.

After studying business administration and physics, Christine first joined 51ˇçÁ÷in 1994 as a retail management consultant. Over 26 years later, her passion for innovative technology has only grown and “exceptional and exciting colleagues” continue to motivate her throughout her journey at the company.

Regitz is a , a certified business coach and mediator, an honorary member of the presidium of the German Informatics Society, a member of the High-Level Advisory Committee of the European Centre for Women and Technology (ECWT), and a member of the advisory board of CyberMentor.

In recognition of her new role as head of Women in Tech at SAP, I spoke with Regitz recently to get her thoughts on the power of women in tech as well as why it is so important to provide education and opportunities for other young women who are interested in a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Q: Did you always know you wanted to work in technology?

A: No, not really. But I always wanted to work in a very flexible environment and in an innovative industry. I was always eager to understand how things worked and to learn about innovative and upcoming new topics. So I guess it is just natural that I ended up in technology.

What was it like learning to code for the first time?

That was horrible, because it was at school in a voluntary course and the first programming language we learned was Assembler. Fortunately, after a very short period of time, we changed to Basic as our programming language and that was eye-opening.

You co-founded the Business Women’s Network at SAP. Why is this network important for the company?

The official launch was in January 2007. The network itself already was growing and existing before, not officially, but as a natural evolution from a series of gender awareness trainings organized by our head of Global Health, Natalie Lotzmann.

A primary goal of the network at that time was to show that gender diversity is an important topic, especially by gaining the attention of the Board, which was not easy in those days. Diversity was not even on the agendas of big corporations at all. I am very proud that we, through the BWN, put gender diversity on the agenda of 51ˇçÁ÷and ignited a change in culture!

The BWN is so important, as it has today so many chapters that act locally according to the motto: “Think global, act local,” incorporating numerous events and actions that are incredibly valuable.

And 51ˇçÁ÷is a corporate role model — to my knowledge, we were among the first companies to form a women’s network.

Why is it so important for more young girls to have access to a STEM education?

We are in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and this is all about technology. So each and every person should have a rock-solid STEM education in order to be part of this revolution and to understand how this will change the lives of all, as well as how we can — through technology — improve people’s lives!

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned from your career in tech?

I never imagined that working in tech requires — besides a good technical foundation — two important skills: communication and teamwork.

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“I was one of two women that sat on the regulatory body that monitors Mexico’s telecom industry. It was a very masculine sector and a difficult environment to navigate,” says Dr. Maria Elena Estavillo, an internationally recognized expert in telecommunications oversight and anti-trust issues.

As a result of her experiences, Estavillo founded , a group that advocates for women’s employment and advancement to the c-suite in information and communication technologies (ICT) professions across Mexico. “Most of these issues are global, but Mexico is very challenged in this aspect,” she says. “When we compare pay cap or participation in the workforce, we lag behind many countries, including those in Latin America.”

To fight this, Conectadas offers mentorship and campaigns for recruiting policies and procedures that encourage women’s participation in the ICT workforce.

Estavillo is not alone and the problems she has identified run deep. is a not-for-profit organization that helps women enter the digital economy with training and job placement support. In collaboration with SAP, the organization produced a study, “The future is diverse: Women in technology industries in Mexico.” The report found that Mexico falls behind other countries in several key categories.

Araceli Campos, Laboratoria’s country manager for Mexico, shares, “Machismo is very present in the workforce. We have very strong anti-discrimination laws but there’s a lack of compliance.” For example, during interviews men ask women if they are pregnant or plan to start a family soon. In fact, 35 percent of the country’s population believes men are more suitable for jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), according to a study published by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Furthermore, while Mexican women have achieved parity in educational achievement, the study reports, “very few women are completing university degrees in technology.” Even when women focus on STEM, the quality of Mexico’s math and science education — and education overall — is comparatively low, receiving a score of 2.8 out of seven from the . The impact? Mexican women are less prepared than men to enter the technology sector.

As a result of cultural biases and subpar education, women are underemployed, particularly in tech-related jobs. Campos says, “What makes Mexico unique is that overall women’s participation in the labor market is 47 percent, whereas men are at 83 percent. And 31 percent of women under 24 don’t participate at all.”

To put it in perspective, women comprise 70 percent of the workforce in other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. It gets worse when it comes to tech: Across Latin America, women represent one in 10 technology workers; in Mexico, it is one out of eight.

For Campos, this means women miss out on a huge economic opportunity: “By 2025, it’s estimated that we’ll need 1.25 million developers in Latin America. Laboratoria is founded on the belief that we need to build a world that equally distributes opportunities for the digital age.”

Moreover, excluding women results in high costs to Mexico’s economy and private sector. “If the gender gap in Mexico’s workforce was closed, it could increase the GDP for Mexico by ,” Campos says.

51ˇçÁ÷agrees that companies suffer without diversity, which is why it partnered with Laboratoria to advance women’s standing in STEM and co-create the study. Raquel Macias heads up Corporate Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for 51ˇçÁ÷Mexico. She says, “Without women, it’s hard to build products that appeal to a broad base of consumers. It’s been well documented that companies with more women have better, more innovative cultures and higher profits.”

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Steps Companies Can Take to Bolster Women’s Participation in the Digital Economy

To make this change, Laboratoria partners with companies like 51ˇçÁ÷to create lasting impact. “We realized for systemic change to happen, working with women was only part of it,” Campos says. “We also needed to work with the companies, because it involves a change of mindset, change of culture.”

What are some concrete steps technology companies can take to be more inclusive and equal? Campos recommends that companies actively hire women. “People say ‘We posted but no women applied.’ But you need to look at the wording of the job posting – men apply if they meet half the criteria but women won’t,” she says, “You need to go the extra mile.”

Moreover, companies must establish policies to retain and develop talent. But for new rules to work, a new culture must take root.

“We need a different culture inside companies and to build the narrative for why diversity matters,” Campos explains, which includes offering tools to help leaders navigate the complexity that diversity brings and encouraging them to keep an open mind. “Executives need to be okay with vulnerability, with not knowing all the answers as we figure out this massive change.”

Both 51ˇçÁ÷and Laboratoria recommend that all actors need to come together including the media, government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private companies. Each plays an important role in creating lasting change. Campos points to its relationship with 51ˇçÁ÷and the 51ˇçÁ÷CSR team as evidence.

“51ˇçÁ÷shows real commitment to this issue,” she says. “And as a leader in gender diversity, 51ˇçÁ÷influences and inspires the industry. That means a lot of people will follow – and that is huge.”

Images via Laboratoria