My review of Pressing On as a Tech Mom: How Tech Industry Mothers Set Goals, Define Boundaries & Raise the Bar for Success by Emilia M. DAnzica & Sabina M. Pons

D’Anzica and Pons are tech executives with years of experience. They have both served on a variety of tech advisory committees, and have successfully navigated the tech industry while also being full-time parents. In Pressing On as a Tech Mom, their first nonfiction book both individually and together, D’Anzica and Pons conduct interviews with other tech leaders who are mothers, and in a question-and-answer format they distill valuable information for both women and men about how to navigate an industry that is quite often hostile to parents. At the end of each chapter, they have a section aimed at thought leaders about what we can learn from the stories of each of the women interviewed.

Repeated studies show that the number of women working in tech continues to drop, which is not great for the industry nor society in general, as women who work are less likely to have impoverished families and children.[i] So, in a time where the tech industry wants to—and needs—to appeal to more women, the research D’Anzica and Pons conducted can be invaluable to attracting women to (or back to) the tech industry.  

Pressing On cites very recent articles about women in tech, such as the Wall Street Journal’s How Women Can Ditch the Guilt When Juggling Careers and Family by Joann Lubin (Feb 2021), and I’m Not Returning to Google After Maternity Leave and Here is Why, a scathing internal memo published by an unidentified female former Googler (2019). The authors cite studies like this to show the ups and downs of the industry. They also conduct personal interviews with a number of female managers and leaders who are still working in tech and doing well.

There were a few points in Pressing On where I took issue with their rampant positivity. For one, D’Anzica and Pons take some very disturbing studies, but they spin them in such a way so as to appear like one-offs, or even the fault of the women themselves, at one point writing, “we have also learned that the greatest challenge to potential mothers can often be their own mindset.”[ii] This attitude disturbed me a little, as the fact remains that tech is a harsh environment for women to work in whether they have a positive mindset or not. 

D'Anzica and Pons were both fortunate to get their starts in the tech industry fairly early on, so while reading this book I questioned if they were providing the full picture to younger tech hopefuls who may be in a pre-parenthood stage of life. I worried a bit that their uplifting and positive messaging throughout might give the wrong impression of this cutthroat industry.

However, in part nine, Why Mothers Belong in Tech[iii], the authors carried out a survey -possibly the first of its kind— of over three hundred tech mothers, and the results were hard to ignore. This chapter, with survey results right in the center of the book, was a great spot for what the literary world might consider a dramatic mid-point reversal.  While the rest of the book is uplifting interviews with specific women who succeeded in both motherhood and tech, this section is more honest and forthright with the facts.

In their survey, they found that nearly one third of the mothers interviewed wanted to drop out of tech at some point, due to its aggressive and hectic environment.[iv] Sixteen percent of the women they interviewed left their jobs and had no intention to return, most saying the environment is not friendly to those who have chosen parenthood.[v]

This mirrors reality, which is that a career in tech is not an easy one to pursue as a parent.  A study from the University of California San Diego shows that nearly half of new moms, and a quarter of new dads, leave tech careers after having or adopting a child, and do not return by the time the child starts full-time school.[vi]

It wasn’t until this chapter in Pressing On as a Tech Mom, that I felt the authors were being forthright with this reality. Even then, they glazed over a lot of these harsher facts in order to paint a rosier picture. In reading further, I opted to give D’Anzica & Pons the benefit of the doubt and assume they did this strategically, perhaps hoping that their more uplifting and positive messaging would inspire parents to join and stay in the tech industry. If that was their intent, then they did a great job. Their interviewees acknowledged the struggle but talked about how they overcame it, and the authors added notes for industry thought leaders about how to take the survey data and make their work environments more welcoming to parents.

I hope their positivity works, but as a realist –and a tech mom who was often faced with choosing between work and my kid – I know working in tech is harder than the book makes it sound.

Despite this somewhat wary review, I do recommend this book for young mothers and other parents. Since nearly ninety percent of people will eventually have children during their working lives,i and the tech industry continues to grow, it’s critical that we encourage young people to take up these STEM roles, whether or not having children will eventually make it difficult to stay there. Pressing On as a Tech Mom shares that little bit of reality mixed with a lot of hope.

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[i] Sawhill, Isabel V. and Katherine Guyot “ Women’s work boosts middle class incomes but creates a family time squeeze that needs to be eased,” Brookings, May 2020,  (https://www.brookings.edu/essay/womens-work-boosts-middle-class-incomes-but-creates-a-family-time-squeeze-that-needs-to-be-eased/)
[ii]  D’Anzica & Pons 64
[iii] D’Anzica & Pons, 119
[iv] D’Anzica & Pons, 123
[v] D’Anzica & Pons, 125
[vi] Cech, Erin A. & Mary Blair-Loy “The Changing Career Trajectories of New Parents in STEM,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Newsletter, Feb 19, 2019, (https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1810862116)

My review of Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland’s Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World, by Eliza Reid

​There is currently no country, city, nor region in the world that has attained gender equity or equality. However, there is one nation that has come close, in many regards, and continues to tighten the gender gap faster than anywhere else in the world – Iceland.

In Secrets of the Sprakkar, author (and First Lady of Iceland) Eliza Reid chronicles the island nation’s successes and failures in supporting gender equality. From advancements like their guaranteed parental leave of 12 months combined, to the numbers of women leading traditionally male executive roles in industries such as farming and search and rescue, Iceland is consistently ranked number one in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report.

Eliza Reid tells the stories of the Sprakkar (an Icelandic word meaning “extraordinary women”) from an outsider’s perspective. Born and raised in the Ottawa Valley, Canada, Reid was first introduced to Iceland when she visited her soon-to-be husband there in the early 2000s. While learning the unique Norse Germanic language has been a challenge for her, adjusting to her new life was made easier by the supports Icelandic women are provided. Government-sponsored daycare, free peer support groups, and normalized public breastfeeding are just a few of the rights Icelandic women have that women in other industrialized nations do not.

In the book, Reid includes small interlude-like chapters, where she shares the rich history of Icelandic mythology and the power of female role models throughout time. One of the most famous Icelandic heroines is Ơlöf “The Rich” Loftsdóttir, who avenged her husband’s death by capturing several of England’s battleships. She is rumored to have been responsible for a five-year war between Denmark and England in the Middle Ages. Reid adds these interim chapters to point out that is ancient heroines like Ơlöf, and others, which help Icelandic people more easily view women as equals.  
However, it is not all unicorns and rainbows for Iceland’s women. There is still a very long way to go. There is still a pay gap, often of nearly 30%, which the country is continually trying to address. There is also a high rate of sexual violence and underreported rape cases.

Reid’s husband, Gudni Jóhannesson, became president of Iceland in 2016. Although the First Lady title is made-up, and Reid insists there are no specific roles for her, she used her new recognition to continue the plight[SK3]  for gender equality in Iceland – and to write this book. She traveled around the nation learning what women needed most and how she could help. At the same time, she continued her previous work as a journalist and writing conference lead, now focusing her craft on the plight of women in Iceland and around the world.

As extraordinary and advanced as Iceland’s women are, however, there are some important notes to consider when comparing the country to other developed nations. Iceland’s population is less than 400,000-- that’s smaller than Halifax, Nova Scotia. Most Icelandic people are distantly related to each other--so much so that they have a national database you can search to make sure you’re not within an unhealthy or incestuous range if you happen to meet a potential new love interest. It’s probably fairly easy to pass new laws and revisit outdated traditions when you’re the second cousin of someone in parliament. It is much harder to change outdated beliefs in even the next most gender-equal developed country, Finland[i], at over 5.5 million people, let alone a country like Canada at nearly 40 million.

I enjoyed Secrets of the Sprakkar. Throughout the read I learned a lot more about what it takes to close the gender gap in a harsh landscape (Iceland is harsh patriarchally  and environmentally!) and I learned a bit of the Icelandic language, too. The Icelandic people are very proud of their language, and although it is based on an otherwise extinct Norse Germanic language, Icelanders frequently update their lexicon to add brand new Icelandic words, such as loftslagskvíði (anxiety about climate change) and smitskömm (shame at being infected with Covid-19.)

Reid does a good job of reminding us about how far Iceland still has to go, as well. She dedicates an entire section to Transgender rights which in Iceland, as in most developed countries, are still quite slow to progress enough for Trans individuals to feel safe. She interviews Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir, aka Owl Fisher, a nonbinary trans rights activist who is one of Iceland’s more famous social media celebrities. Ugla talks about changes made for LGBTQ people over recent history, and how much more there is to do.

For example, in Icelandic language there is now a word, hán which can be used as a nonbinary pronoun instead of hún “she” or hann “he,” but as of yet it is only used within the LGBTQ+ community itself and has not been accepted into the more heteronormative lexicon.  On the flip side, many trans laws have been passed in recently years, such as one declaring that from the age of fifteen, an Icelander can legally change their name and gender marker on their identification. Altering gender on ID is a right not granted in most other nations.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in advocating for women’s rights in their own country. While it is not instructional and therefore won’t teach you how to change national opinion, it does give an uplifting and educational viewpoint of what closing the gender gap can start to look like for both men and women around the world.
​
I don’t think I can change four hundred million American and Canadian minds myself, but at the very least I could go out and start my own kvenfélög—an officially-recognized women’s association.

[i] Whiting, Kate, “Gender gap: These are the world’s most gender-equal countries,” World Economic Forum, Jul 13, 2022, World Economic Forum