The 9 Most Influential Women In Tech, Ranked By PeekYou

On April 3, we posted a slideshow of the top 11 most influential young leaders in tech, according to PeekYou, a search engine that ranks people based on their influence around the web and on social sites like Facebook and Twitter.

A few of you pointed out in the comments that this list of young tech stars was lacking in women, so the PeekYou team decided to pull together a list of the most influential women in tech.

The powerful and talented women who make up the list below have been ranked based on their PeekScores, which range from 1 to 10 (the higher one's score, the "more important" one is on the web). According to PeekYou, one's PeekScore "takes into account your known presence and activity on the Internet, including but not limited to your blogging, participation in social networks, the number of your friends, followers, or readers, the amount of web content you create, and your prominence in the news."

Flip through the slideshow below to view the tech world's most influential females online, from powerful companies like Facebook, HP, IBM, Google and more. Then, check out our list of 10 up-and-coming female tech CEOs to watch out for, as well as 27 female tech founders to follow on Twitter.

Are you surprised by who made the list? Let us know in the comments!

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Comments

[Deb Irwin]

12:15 AM on 07/22/2012

yeah maybe I can applaud some of the other women but Meg Whitman? Not a fan and I have notice nothing and I mean nothing has changed with HP customer service except maybe get worse. after my laptop broke and they downgraded me from a high tech 17 inch to a 14 inch basic system that broke after a month(sound and no video for Skype and no resolution since Dec for my issues). Like I said not a fan and doesn't belong on this list!

[sarah4478]

08:20 PM on 04/15/2012

I can't help wondering how many more female minorities would be in top positions in the tech industry but are not due to limitations imposed by societal gender and race stereotypes they face from the time they are children. I wonder how challenging it must be for them to succeed when men predominate the field and are expected to be more aggressive and independent whereas women are expected to be more communal. I once saw a study where a description of a boss was written up and people were asked if they would like to work for that person. The majority of respondents said "yes" when a man's name was attached to the description but "no" when a woman's name was attached to the very same description. Once elements of compassion and motherliness were added to the job description for the woman, about an equal amount of people were willing to work for her. This double-standard gender stereotype for managers coupled with societal expectations of who does and who does not fit in to the tech field combine to create a difficult barrier to entry to top tech jobs for female minorities. One thing is for sure, we need to create a different environment in our society and schools if we want to see more women and minorities becoming technological innovators.

[sarah4478]

08:18 PM on 04/15/2012

I recently read an article in Business Week called "An Historic Succession at Xerox." According to the article, Burns is the first African-American woman to lead a large public company. As a mechanical engineer, Burns understands both the technology and businesses side of things. The article says "executives both inside and outside the company speak of her deep industry knowledge and technical prowess." Although Burns is more than qualified for the job, one of the factors in her rise was Xerox's commitment to diversity. Xerox established "a culture where having women and people of color as candidates for powerful jobs has been going on for two decades." This corporate culture allowed women and minorities to be recognized for their skills and intellect at a time when they were often overlooked and stereotyped. Because of her skills and work ethic, Burns rapidly advanced to positions predominated by white males. Burns herself said, "I'm in this job because I believe I earned it through hard work and high performance. Did I get some opportunities early in my career because of my race and gender? Probably... I went to work for a company that was openly seeking to diversify it's workforce. So, I imagine race and gender got the hiring guy's attention. And then the rest was really up to me." Other skilled women may not have been afforded similar opportunities and thus never reached their potential.

[sarah4478]

08:14 PM on 04/15/2012

It is nice to see an article about the most influential women in technology at a time when women make up 59%-60% of the U.S. labor force but fewer than 16% of women are top corporate officers. Women only make up about 25% of the workforce in computer science and about 14% in architecture and engineering. The number is even worse for female minorities. At a time when STEM jobs are often stereotyped to particular race and gender, individuals from underrepresented groups who are interested in technology need positive role models. These role models will help them understand that going into these jobs is something that is socially appropriate for them to do, and believe that they can succeed. I would have liked to see more minorities on this list though. Another disappointing thing is that this list seems to be composed primarily of business women with backgrounds in marketing or management. Not very many of these women are actually 'tech' people that have invented, revolutionized, or created new technology. I would like to see more female innovators rather than CEOs/managers. Which of these women are actually known for their technological skills except Burns?

[woody7]

12:57 PM on 04/09/2012

Meg Whitless number one????????

[bmwracer]

05:49 PM on 04/08/2012

Meg Whitman number one?

Maybe in terms of scuttling the company.

[Mi Otro Yo]

12:36 AM on 04/08/2012

And Miranda Cosgrove from iCarli?

[moonlit]

09:17 PM on 04/06/2012

Meg Whiteman - surprised to see her name on that list. Not a fan.

[nightfly4257]

08:49 PM on 04/06/2012

How come Siri is not on that list, she sounds female to me.

[failureofreality]

01:36 PM on 04/06/2012

The rule is this: women become CEOs of tech companies when they stop being tech companies. Women can work for tech companies that are run by men. But once a woman is in charge, it is not longer a tech company. For example, Xerox is no longer a tech company. It is a service company. We will see if IBM remains a tech company under the leadership of Virginia Rometty. As for HP, well, it is doomed.

[missy mitten]

02:43 PM on 04/06/2012

Oracle isn't a tech company?

[dsrhuff]

12:55 PM on 04/06/2012

Yeah, a real group of visionaries there working the standard business model in the pursuit of profits. They equate to John Sculley when he ran Apple.

[BobLaughlin]

12:48 PM on 04/06/2012

Will Meg Whitman crater HP like she did eBay?

In 2005, eBay bought Skype for $4.1B. In 2009, eBay sold Skype for $2.75B. In 2011, Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5B.

Her "leadership" produced such ugly results in my stock porfolio that I gave up on investing.

[moonlit]

09:18 PM on 04/06/2012

What is wrong with HP? First Fiorina, now Whitman?

[Kyle Noe]

04:13 AM on 04/09/2012

Don't forget Hurd and Apotheker...

[cmacattack]

12:03 PM on 04/09/2012

Ebay only sold a portion of Skype and still made a huge chunk of change when Microsoft bought it.

[AZHusker]

12:31 PM on 04/06/2012

Tech is still a largely male driven workforce. I was just in a two-day training class with Juniper and there were 20 men and only 1 women.

[keemia]

01:11 PM on 04/06/2012

Especially if equipment is involved, like at Juniper.

[AZHusker]

02:25 PM on 04/06/2012

I only know about 2-3 women who work with Cisco/Juniper equipment in over 12 years of networking/IT background. A lot more deal with Servers / Help Desk.

Good market for a young woman who knows what they are doing ....

[moonlit]

09:24 PM on 04/06/2012

That's typical. I was at a tech conference, a large one, and there were at most 10% women, and only one speaker out of 20, and she was in a marketing field.

[JustMeinNJ]

11:32 AM on 04/06/2012

I've been in IT for 20 years. I've advanced but if I look around - the number of woman in senior level positions are still lacking.
I work in a large corp. where "diversity" is stressed. From where I sit - IT is still a male dominated field.

[moonlit]

09:19 PM on 04/06/2012

It is absolutely a male dominated field. And discriminates against older people. I would think that in a large company a woman would have a better chance. The smaller companies are all good old boys' clubs - shades of the eighties.

[Lindytindy]

10:58 AM on 04/06/2012

Tech has always offered good opportunities for women. More women should go into advanced network design, it's a very good area for job security and growth. Companies are always looking for talented network techs, particularly Wide Area Network techs, can't find enough of them.

[JustMeinNJ]

11:23 AM on 04/06/2012

HA! Not in executive leadership positions.
I challenge you to look at any IT org chart - and see a significant number of women in senior leadership roles.