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#inspireInclusion was the 2024 International Women's Day theme, celebrating women's empowerment and actions that defy stereotypical thinking. However, despite many steps toward gender parity today, data from the World Economic Forum has also pointed out that parity in pay may only be reached in 131 years. That makes the need to recognize and celebrate top women in technology all the more critical.
We hope this list sheds light on women's important contributions to technology and possibly drives conversations on equal pay.
For Sheryl Sandberg, one of the most famous women in STEM today, her meteoric rise reads like a fairy tale. Worth a cool $2bn, this high-flying woman was once an important cog in Facebook's success, and her exit caused significant investor unrest.
Her crowning glory is turning Facebook into a global advertising leviathan, reeling in hundreds of billions annually in revenue. Speaking on her role as a business strategist for Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg testified that she dealt with "stuff" he normally wouldn't have handled, allowing him to focus on engineering challenges.
Sheryl also helped navigate several ethical and political issues for Meta, including the Jan 2021 Capitol attack, Frances Haugen’s document leak scandal, and the Cambridge Analytica breach.
The 1970s were defined by fashion, culture, and counterculture, but this is also the era in which programmers and scientists scrambled to assemble the networks and platforms we now call the internet. Radia, an engineer and mathematician, was among a handful of female tech founders spearheading this process.
In the early days, Ethernet systems were plagued by network loops, which often caused congestion and failure. While working at Digital Equipment Corp, Radia solved the problem by inventing the spanning tree algorithm and protocol.
First-world countries waste food on an epic scale. According to Peter Lehner, Director Emeritus of the Natural Resource Defense Council, in the U.S., upwards of 40% of edible food grows mold in some landfill somewhere. Despite various global attempts at reduction, reusing, and recycling, not a lot of progress has been made.
In 2018, Elizabeth Coulombe created the Tero machine, which recycles food waste into odorless natural fertilizer in hours. This machine, which is small enough to fit even the smallest kitchen countertops, has saved upwards of 832,000 liters of food from ending up in landfills. Tero by Coulombe has sold thousands of units since 2021 and raised over $4.5 million in funding from investors.
Reshma Saujani founded Girls Who Code, a nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology and change gender stereotypes in programming. More than 500,000 girls have learned how to code since 2012 with Girls Who Code clubs, camps, and college programs.
Saujani's work makes her one of the famous women in STEM because it corrects the gender imbalance from its roots upwards. She is ensuring that the future of technology is diverse and inclusive, having empowered girls at a tender age with coding skills and confidence in their potential contribution. Her work has received great recognition in Fortune, Forbes, and Time.
Fei Fei Li is a leading computer scientist and the co-director of Stanford University's Human-Centered AI Institute. She is one of the founding members of AI4ALL, a nonprofit organization working to increase diversity and inclusion in artificial intelligence.
Li's work in AI—specifically on computer vision—is worth recognition. Her work has resulted in important breakthroughs regarding how machines read visual data, revolutionizing health tech and autonomous driving. Equally important is her work in AI4ALL, democratizing AI education and ensuring inclusiveness and ethics in the development of AI technology.
We have barely scratched the surface regarding famous women in STEM who have left an indelible mark in the tech industry. However, these five female tech founders are the first among equals. The world of STEM stands on their shoulders, and efforts should be doubled to inspire other top women in technology in the 21st century to achieve even more remarkable feats.
#inspireInclusion was the 2024 International Women's Day theme, celebrating women's empowerment and actions that defy stereotypical thinking. However, despite many steps toward gender parity today, data from the World Economic Forum has also pointed out that parity in pay may only be reached in 131 years. That makes the need to recognize and celebrate top women in technology all the more critical.
We hope this list sheds light on women's important contributions to technology and possibly drives conversations on equal pay.
For Sheryl Sandberg, one of the most famous women in STEM today, her meteoric rise reads like a fairy tale. Worth a cool $2bn, this high-flying woman was once an important cog in Facebook's success, and her exit caused significant investor unrest.
Her crowning glory is turning Facebook into a global advertising leviathan, reeling in hundreds of billions annually in revenue. Speaking on her role as a business strategist for Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg testified that she dealt with "stuff" he normally wouldn't have handled, allowing him to focus on engineering challenges.
Sheryl also helped navigate several ethical and political issues for Meta, including the Jan 2021 Capitol attack, Frances Haugen’s document leak scandal, and the Cambridge Analytica breach.
The 1970s were defined by fashion, culture, and counterculture, but this is also the era in which programmers and scientists scrambled to assemble the networks and platforms we now call the internet. Radia, an engineer and mathematician, was among a handful of female tech founders spearheading this process.
In the early days, Ethernet systems were plagued by network loops, which often caused congestion and failure. While working at Digital Equipment Corp, Radia solved the problem by inventing the spanning tree algorithm and protocol.
First-world countries waste food on an epic scale. According to Peter Lehner, Director Emeritus of the Natural Resource Defense Council, in the U.S., upwards of 40% of edible food grows mold in some landfill somewhere. Despite various global attempts at reduction, reusing, and recycling, not a lot of progress has been made.
In 2018, Elizabeth Coulombe created the Tero machine, which recycles food waste into odorless natural fertilizer in hours. This machine, which is small enough to fit even the smallest kitchen countertops, has saved upwards of 832,000 liters of food from ending up in landfills. Tero by Coulombe has sold thousands of units since 2021 and raised over $4.5 million in funding from investors.
Reshma Saujani founded Girls Who Code, a nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology and change gender stereotypes in programming. More than 500,000 girls have learned how to code since 2012 with Girls Who Code clubs, camps, and college programs.
Saujani's work makes her one of the famous women in STEM because it corrects the gender imbalance from its roots upwards. She is ensuring that the future of technology is diverse and inclusive, having empowered girls at a tender age with coding skills and confidence in their potential contribution. Her work has received great recognition in Fortune, Forbes, and Time.
Fei Fei Li is a leading computer scientist and the co-director of Stanford University's Human-Centered AI Institute. She is one of the founding members of AI4ALL, a nonprofit organization working to increase diversity and inclusion in artificial intelligence.
Li's work in AI—specifically on computer vision—is worth recognition. Her work has resulted in important breakthroughs regarding how machines read visual data, revolutionizing health tech and autonomous driving. Equally important is her work in AI4ALL, democratizing AI education and ensuring inclusiveness and ethics in the development of AI technology.
We have barely scratched the surface regarding famous women in STEM who have left an indelible mark in the tech industry. However, these five female tech founders are the first among equals. The world of STEM stands on their shoulders, and efforts should be doubled to inspire other top women in technology in the 21st century to achieve even more remarkable feats.
