What is keeping women out of technology in Israel?
Filed under: Industry pulse, New Ideas, Science, Uncategorized, Web2.0, technology
Earlier this year I posted an entry about the lack of women in technology that included some of the famous women who contributed to technology and some of the causes that prevent women from studying fields related to technology or having a career in technology and connected all this to Israel.
I’ve been waiting for a good time to post the follow up, and was going to post it back in June after Roi Carthy of TechCrunch mentioned, but didn’t cover, the question in his post about three of Israel’s most-promising female entrepreneurs and then again last month after Ada Yonath won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, thus becoming the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first woman since 1964 to win one in chemistry, but wasn’t able to either of those times.
Fortunately, Boris’s post “What is keeping women out of technology?“ on The Next Web today has given me another opportunity to post this. He suggests that considering the 50/50 male/female attendance he recently saw at a networking event and the 44% women who read The Next Web but how few of them comment, fewer women are in tech compared to men because women miss important phone calls and never bring their business cards with them.
These are interesting points that can perhaps take women out of technology but they are not the main factors. How many of the women at the networking event or who read The Next Web are actually on the tech side of technology and not just the marketing or journalism side? How many of them have backgrounds in science, math, computers or engineering?
The problem is that women first need to be interested in technology and pursue that path. Even if they are interested in math, science, technology when they are younger, women face a lot of social pressures as they grow older that challenge their pursuit and ultimately result in many abandoning these areas.
In her dissertation “Women in the Land of Milk, Honey and Hi-Technology: The Israeli Case,” Ronit Kark takes an in-depth look at Israeli society and the underlying dynamics that are preventing more women from going into technology, engineering and science in Israel.
The reasons that Kark gives for why women are being kept out of technology in Israel include: the high school education and military service of women, familialism and motherhood in Israel and the role of the Hebrew language.
Taking this further, based on my first post and Boris’s, while Boris is planning to teach his two daughters PHP when they are old enough, he should also make sure that they gain the self-confidence to go along with those skills. Real encouragement is also one of the things we can all do to get more women in technology.
Note: Major thanks to Guy Tessler of the American Israel Chamber of Commerce in the Southeast Region who pointed out Kark’s study to me.
12 Israel-related headlines from the week of May 17, 2009
Filed under: Advertising, Cleantech, Company Briefs, Information Technology, Mobile Web, Uncategorized, VC, Web2.0, cloud computing
During the week of May 17, 2009, news focused on a California cleantech investors mission to Israel that was deemed successful and Israeli companies trying to build a global profile for themselves. In mobile and video technology, Waze announced its technology, which offers real-time traffic reports based on user input, and Yaniv Axen of SundaySky was interviewed. For more on these stories and the rest of this week’s 12 headlines, check below.
Cleantech
1. UN Climate Talks: Cleantech IP Battle of the Year?
2. Will the Electric Car Make the World a Better Place?
Investment
3. Israeli Companies Seek Global Profile
4. China’s 4 trillion Yuan stimulus package: Israeli opportunities
5. IVA 2009 – Business as Usual?
Information Technology and Web 2.0
6. Waze: The traffic of the crowds
7. B.O.S. to provide large-scale wastemanagement solution
8. Yaniv Axen, Co-Founder of SundaySky
9. AcCells Named a Mobile Innovation Grand Prix Nominee
10. Innovating Video Conferencing In Israel
Miscellaneous
11. Photo: Sandstorm Strikes Israel
12. Viva Tel Aviv!
14 Israel-related headlines from the week of March 29, 2009
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, IT management, Industry pulse, Information Technology, Israeli Websites, SaaS, Uncategorized, VC, Web2.0, cloud computing
The week of March 29, 2009 was one of the busiest weeks of the year for Israel’s Web industry, with conferences and events happening everyday. Three bigg events were TheMarker’s COM.Vention on Sunday and Jeff Pulver’s Tel Aviv breakfast and Techonomy on Tuesday. While these events showcased Israel’s most promising Web startups, there was buzz about Israeli companies starting to bypass the US market and target the market in China. For more on these stories and the rest of this week’s 13 Israel-related headlines, see below.
Cleantech
Israel’s Aora Solar To Begin Clean Energy Production
Leviathan looks to wind energy device sales
Global VC Funding of Clean Tech Plunges
Investments and M&A
Building A Bridge Between Israel & China
Israeli Entrepreneurs: Know What Game You Are Playing
The tycoons’ companies don’t create jobs
Information Technology
AICC member Unisfair Launches Channel Program to Capitalize on Growth of Virtual Events
Savvy entrepreneurs tapping risk (CTERA)
XMPie and NowDocs Introduce XMPie-enabled NowPrint 7.0
SaaS’ Testuff Nabs 2,000th Customer
Miscellaneous
Techonomy 2009: Great Startups And Amazing Event
MyHeritage: Avoiding the MetaCafe Curse
Impressions of TheMarker’s COM.vention from a new immigrant (Israel Innovation 2.0 coverage from guest blogger Jessica Korman)
19 Israel-related headlines from the week of January 25, 2009 (HYPick Bonus)
Filed under: Advertising, Cleantech, Company Briefs, Data Storage, Environment, IT management, Information Technology, Israeli Websites, Mobile Web, Telecomunications, VC, Video, Web2.0, cloud computing, data security
Cleantech and Environment
1. ‘Israel has no plan for water economy past 2010′
2. Better Place Raises Financing for Denmark Electric Car Project
3. BrightView Secures $6 Million From Israel Cleantech Ventures and Hasso Plattner Ventures
Investments, M&A and Economy
4. Number of laid-off Israelis set new high in December
5. SAP cuts likely to reach Israel
6. MyThings Acquires ViewScore
Information Technology
8. Waterfall Security Solutions to Attend the 2009 DistribuTECH Conference
9. Cordys Award-Winning Process Factory(TM) Now Available as Community Platform Free of Charge
10. IBM to expand Israeli XIV production facilities
11. How flash is changing storage (Axxana)
Web 2.0
13. Peer39 matches online content to advertiser’s message
14. Time to Headup
15. Interview : HYPick – hype a topic
16. Email: 2Pad Grabs Media Attachments from Your Webmail Accounts
17. MocoSpace a Global Top 10 Social Network on Mobile
Miscellaneous
18. Mobile TV chip co Siano wins major Chinese deal
19. Free Internet-Calling Services for Cellphones (Fring)
Bonus: HYPick.com
If you want to know what the hype is– the real hype and not just what people vote on by clicking–check out HYPick.com. Founded by Oren Todoros, HYPick is the anti-Digg-type site that determines the top content based on user comments and views and not ranking, like Digg. Todoros recently sat down with Ezra Butler of LuckyStartups to discuss HYPick. See what the hype is for yourself with this video.
You can add to Israel’s technology hype, by joining in on Israel Innovation 2.0 HYPick.com discussions, such as this one.
12 Israel-related headlines from the week of January 11, 2008 (N-Trig Edition)
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Data Storage, Environment, Industry pulse, Information Technology, Internet Security, Mergers and Acquisitions, Uncategorized, data security
During the week of January 11, 2009, the war in Gaza escalated and news about Israeli tech companies continued. The biggest news of the week was that multi-touch technology company, N-Trig raised $24 million in its latest round of funding, the majority coming from Microsoft. Better Place announced its partnership to bring electric cars to Canada while Aladdin agreed to be acquired after months of talks with Vector Capital. Other information security companies, Trusteer and Commtouch also made headlines with important security threat findings. For links to these stories and more, check out the complete 12 Israel-related headlines from the week of January 11, 2009 below.
Cleantech
1. Better Place Partners with Ontario to Bring ‘Car 2.0’ Electric Car Infrastructure to Canada
2. Eilat to host major international energy conference
Investments and M&A
3. Information security provider Aladdin is to be acquired by Vector Capital for $160 million
4. Microsoft leads $24m round for touch screen co N-trig
Information Technology
5. Phishing attack uses pop-up message on bank sites
6. Shunra Software Joins Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partners Program
8. RiT Technologies launches Paladin environment and security management suite
N-Trig
10. N-trig Secures $24 Million of New Funding to Fuel Hands-on computing™ Growth in Global PC Market
11. Microsoft Betting Big on ‘Touch’
12. CyberLink and N-Trig Introduce Next-Generation Multi-Touch Enabled Applications at CES
Cleantech Friday… on Sunday
I am starting a new section where once a month on a Friday Israel Innovation 2.0 will cover Israel’s thriving cleantech industry. To kick it off, I will be covering this week a cleantech initiative that the Jerusalem Business Networking Forum (JBNF), a group I’m a co-organizer of, is organizing.
In the past 5 years, Israel has experienced a revival in cleantech initiatives that is slowly leading it to become the top country in the field, regarding both innovating and practicing it. In 2008, a total of $247 million was raised by Israeli companies, primarily in the solar industry. During this time the interest in the field among technology professionals also became apparent through the rise of Israeli cleantech networking groups and cleantech blogs focused on Israel.
While over the years most cleachtech companies have been founded in the center of Israel near Tel Aviv, a smaller group of companies have been founded in Jerusalem also. In an effort to increase activity in Jerusalem further and get the public involved, the Jerusalem Business Networking Forum (JBNF), a group that helps facilitate networking online and offline among Jerusalem business professionals, will be holding a special forum later this week in conjunction with the CleanIsrael Network, the Renewable Energy Association, the Movement for Strengthening Jerusalem and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The forum will feature presentations from renewable energy projects that companies around Jerusalem, including Phoebus Energy and 3G Solar, are working on as well as from representatives from Jerusalem’s government, including Jerusalem Council Member & Responsible for Environment, Naomi Tsur. The event is free and open to the public and everyone is encouraged to attend.
- What: Greening of Jerusalem
- Date: Thursday, January 15, 2009
- Time: 6 PM
- Location: Weitzman Hall at the Jewish Agency’s offices on 45 King George Street, Jerusalem
- Language: English and Hebrew
To RSVP and for additional info please visit the JBNF’s event page.
Why TechAviv and technology in general lacks women (Part 1)
Filed under: Industry pulse, Information Technology, Israeli Websites, Uncategorized, Web2.0, technology
TechAviv, a global group for hi-tech Israeli entrepreneurs, had its first meeting of 2009 at the Inter-Disciplinary College (IDC) in Herzilyya last night. During the event, which was only open to Israeli entrepreneurs, representatives from Outbrain, 2Pad and Boxee spoke about their companies. The event was streamed live over the Internet on the TechAviv website. Watching part of the event online, the most interesting thing for me was noticing that out of all who attended the event, there was not one woman in the audience.
Sadly, this isn’t very surprising. Of the hundreds of Israeli companies that I have become familiar with in the past year and a half, the only company that I can think of that was started by a woman is eSnips (founded by Yael Elish and her then-husband). This isn’t just in Israel though and it’s not limited to just women starting companies in technology.
I started planning this entry back in November after Charlene Li, the former Forrester Senior Analyst, posted on her blog about the shortage of women speakers at technology industry events. (In it she mentioned that though there are few women in tech to begin with, there are fewer women who can make the time commitments required for conferences due to familial responsibility.)
My intention at the time was to answer the questions, “Where are the women?” “Why aren’t women in hi-tech?” and “Are women less innovative than men?” Questions that were also brought up today on Twitter in an interesting discussion between @TechAviv (Yaron Samid), @OurielOhayon, @israluv (Ahuvah Berger) and others about the lack of female entrepreneurs in Israel in relation to last night’s event.
The following are a few ideas based on what I found when I did preliminary research a few months ago on these topics.
Regarding the last question first, statistically it would certainly appear that men are more innovative than women. Go to any conference (in the United States) on technology and there will be few women speakers and only a few more in the audience. The biggest female entrepreneur in tech that comes to my mind is Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post, while when I think of men, several come to mind (Steve Jobs for example). In Israel, though Yael Elish is the only female tech entrepreneur I can think of, two of the biggest bloggers/consultants I can think of in the Web 2.0 space, are female: Ayelet Noff of Blonde 2.0 and Orli Yakuel of Go2Web2.
Steve Jobs
In an online search I conducted on major scientific breakthroughs of the past 200 years that were made by women, About.com seemed to have the best list that was solely of female inventors. It includes:
- Randice-Lisa Altschul (invented the world’s first disposable cell phone)
- Mary Anderson (invented the windshield wiper)
- Marie Curie (discovered radium and furthered x-ray technology)
- Ada Lovelace (wrote a scientific paper in 1843 that anticipated the development of computer software artificial intelligence and computer music)
- Krisztina Holly (Co-invented the telephony software called Visual Voice)
- and Bette Nesmith Graham (invented liquid paper, also known as White-Out™).
In addition, the CS (computer science) department at Yale University has a list of women who contributed to CS that includes:
- Alexandra Illmer Forsythe (During the 1960’s and 1970’s, she co-authored a series of textbooks on computer science, published by Wiley & Sons and Academic Press, including the first textbook written in CS.)
- Erna Schneider Hoover (She invented a computerized switching system for telephone traffic, to replace existing hard-wired, mechanical switching equipment. For this ground-breaking achievement — the principles of which are still used today — she was awarded one of the first software patents ever issued in 1971 ).
From these lists, it is clear that women too have invented things throughout the past 200 years, but not in significant numbers and none at the level of fame or being as prolific as men such as Thomas Edison, Eli Whitney or Henry Ford.
Ford Model T
Since the 1990s, psychologists have conducted several research studies on what the reasons are for why there are fewer female innovators than male ones.
One reason psychologists have found is that women perform lower in math when conscious of gender stereotypes and get turned off that way. Another study explains that young women tend to avoid careers in math, science and engineering “because they view science as a solitary rather than a social occupation” and uninteresting. Instead many are in public relations, education and psychology. The main theory that has been presented in recent years is based on the amount of confidence given by parents and teachers in these areas- “the self-confidence instilled by parents and teachers is more important for young girls learning math and science than their initial interest.”
Now that there is proof that males and females have equal cognitive abilities for math, incentives and programs are more actively being put in place to change female perceptions and stimulate more interest among them in math and science. Through these there should be changes seen in the near future of a new generation of new generation female inventors/entrepreneurs.
Regarding what can be done in Israel, going back to the TechAviv and the Twitter discussion, Yaron Samid suggested that Israeli entrepreneurs start an Israeli female entrepreneur group. I think going beyond that group, a national program or wider organization should be created that nurtures women’s interest in science from at least high school age and provides resources to them and older women.
What do you think should be done in Israel?
Update: January 11, 2009 – Joel Katz has notified me that in a video taken by Oren Todoros of SeoVice at TechAviv last week, there are at least two women. You can view the video on seovice.com.
12 Israel-related technology headlines from the week of December 21, 2008
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Industry pulse, Information Technology, Mergers and Acquisitions, Software, Uncategorized, VC, virtualization
Despite reports that thousands of IT workers in Israel will lose their jobs in the coming months, Israeli companies seemed unfazed by economic woes during the week of December 21, 2008 which saw a lot of investment and M&A activity. Several deals were also made, including Mobileye landing a $150 million contract for its on-board Driving Assistance Systems and cleantech incubators from Israel and California signing a water deal. For these stories and the rest of the 12 headlines from the past week, check below.
Cleantech
1. Clean Tech Incubators from Israel and California Sign Water Deal
2. Algae in the Air: 5 Startups Turning Algae Into Jet Fuel
Investments and M&A
3. Scopus Video Networks acquired by Harmonic for $86 million
4. Runcom Technologies Ltd. to Invest in IXI Mobile, Inc.
5. Provigent Continues to Accelerate Growth — Secures $10 Million in Fifth-Round Funding
Information Technology
6. Business Transaction Management in the News (Correlsense)
7. Nokia to sell security business to Check Point
8. Imperva Achieves Compliance with Key US and Canadian Government IT Security Standard
Miscellaneous
9. Research group IDC predicts thousands of high-tech layoffs
10. Ran Harnevo, CEO and Co-Founder of 5min.com
11. Mobileye awarded $150m contract
12. 2tweet: Broadcast Instant Media Galleries To Twitter Via Email
13 Israel-related headlines from the week of December 14, 2008
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Industry pulse, Information Technology, Partnerships, Uncategorized, Web2.0
The week of of December 14, 2008 was filled with news from the Madoff scandal, including reports that the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology lost $72 million. Israel’s clean technology continued to draw interest from different states in the United States and reports were releases that U.S. investors are still seeking to invest in Israeli companies. A partnership between IBM and Samsung led to the development of a software reuse technology and WorkLight announced that it partnered with NetVibes to develop new secure widget technologies for the enterprise. For these stories and more, check below for the 13 Israel-related headlines from the week of December 14, 2008.
Cleantech
1. State of Georgia looks to Israel for solutions to energy and water challenges
2. MRI, Israeli firm will create renewable energy technology center
Investments and Economy
3. US investors seek out Israeli high-tech opportunities
4. Peres calls for tax breaks for growth industries
5. Government Gives Boost to Hi-Tech
Information Technology
6. IBM Israel and Samsung develop software reuse technology
8. WorkLight® and Netvibes Pair Up To Develop New Secure Widget Technologies for the Enterprise
Miscellaneous
10. Ron Yekutiel, Chairman and CEO of Kaltura (TV Week interview)
11. Terrorism spurs interest in Israeli tech
12. American Technion Society takes $72 million hit in Madoff scheme
13. USA Hockey to form Intelligym (Applied Cognitive Engineering Ltd.)
Bonus: Angel investor and Web 2.0 icon, Jeff Pulver hosted his famous real time social-networking breakfast twice in Israel this past week. The first one he hosted was in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, December 16th, which brought together over 400 people in Israel’s hi-tech industry. The second one was the following day, when Pulver hosted his first social networking breakfast in Jerusalem. The picture below is from the Jerusalem event. Pulver is in the center wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
Magic Software Releases its Flagship Application Platform: uniPaaS Version 1.5
Magic Software Enterprises, Ltd., a provider of application platforms and business and process integration solutions, has released uniPaaS, its flagship application platform. The platform, which includes a .NET rich internet client, is designed to allow organizations to develop and deploy applications in approximately one-fifth of the time and effort it takes other technologies and is best suited for mobile, field service, supply chain and vertical business applications.
uniPaaS version 1.5 is Magic Software’s first Rich Internet Application (RIS) and SaaS Enabled Application Platform (SEAP). Some features and benefits include:
- uniPaaS features a single development paradigm that automatically handles the Client and Server partitioning. With no need to follow distinct Client and Server paradigms and no need to explicitly install Client-side software, total cost of ownership is greatly reduced.
- uniPaaS can deploy in multiple modes – on-premise as well as on-demand. Users can move smoothly between RIA and Client/Server without re-writing their application.
- Magic Software application owners and ISVs can extend their service and product offerings to include RIA and SaaS deployment, while significantly lowering their application maintenance and delivery costs.
- ISV’s and Enterprises new to Magic Software can implement their applications on a single platform while supporting both Client/Server and Web based deployments, significantly reducing their investment for moving to RIA.
Company Facts
Founded in 1986.
Headquarters in Or Yehuda, Israel.
Products: uniPaaS (application platform) and iBOLT (business integration).
Website: www.magicsoftware.com.
Related ITGumbo content:
Company in Focus: Magic Software Enterprises Ltd
VeNotion Technologies and Software AG sign agreement
About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.
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