March 04, 2015

Silicon Valley — and the broader innovation ecosystem — seem to have a woman problem. Namely: a lack of women. 

In honor of Women's History Month, we at Innovation Hub decided to piece together some of the best interviews about women and women's issues from the past year. 

We start with the issue of bias – which may be a key ingredient when it comes to why there are so few women in tech. Mazarin Banaji, a professor at Harvard, explains why we all have biases we don't even know about. 

Ten years ago, Larry Summers, who at the time was the president of Harvard, spoke at a conference for the National Bureau of Economic Research. He tried to explain why female professors are so scarce at top math and science departments — and his theories were more than a little controversial. Eileen Pollack, who has known Summers since high school, was inspired to write an email to her old friend – and that email turned into an upcoming book filled with the real reasons women leave science.

Facebook, Twitter and Google have said that more than 80 percent of their core technical jobs are held by men. And these are lucrative careers - with lots of growth potential. We hear from Sheri Atwood, founder and CEO of SupportPay, and venture capitalist Eurie Kim, about the problems and possible solutions to the shortage of women in their industry.

We also hear the stories of two of the most unique and innovative women in history. 

Biographer Tilar Mazzeo on Coco Chanel:

And Alex Prudhomme, biographer and great nephew of Julia Child:

Plus, Jonathan Eig, author of The Birth of The Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution" tells us about the pill's twisted and sometimes dark past, and how it changed the world forever.

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