I recently sat down with Nancy Lipp, Principal Support Engineer, to reflect on her career and how support for women in the mainframe industry has evolved over the decades.
“It’s a different environment today, and that’s good news,” she told me. “I don’t feel at all like I used to. The people I work with today are absolutely great and never make my gender an issue like it was in the past. But it still appears that way as one of the few women working on the team’” she added with a smile.
The technology industry has remained male-dominated, but the number of women working in both tech and mainframe has measurably grown in recent years. While Lipp says she no longer faced the outright discrimination of the last century, she admitted the experience could still be isolating and lonely for women. What has changed dramatically is how women in the workforce feel about being a minority.
To foster a more inclusive environment, Broadcom’s Mainframe Software Division launched its Lean In Resource Group in the fall of 2021. Lean In is a global community that is dedicated to helping foster leadership, advancement, and inclusion for women in the workplace. Founded by Sheryl Sandberg in 2013, Lean In offers a framework and resources, including online tools and discussion guides, for facilitating meaningful conversations exploring topics related to professional development and career advancement for women.
Today, many companies worldwide officially support employee-led Lean In circles where women in their organizations gather regularly. I co-lead the Lean In Circle at Broadcom, with Lauren Valenti, Director, Mainframe Education and Customer Engagement, Vitality and Mainframe Expert Programs. Our group today consists of 45 women from around the globe and continues to grow. We get together once a month on Friday over Zoom for peer-to-peer mentorship, skill-building and networking.
“We meet as a group for the first 30 minutes to introduce our topic,” Lipp explained. “Then we break into smaller groups to discuss specific strategies each of us can put into practice to make a difference. We take turns moderating our monthly sessions.”
For example, the group recently discussed job promotions. “I believed my performance and expanded scope over the years warranted a promotion but was in the past told no, so I let it go,” Lipp recounted. “But the group encouraged me to persevere. With encouragement and guidance on presenting my case and negotiating, I succeeded in being awarded the promotion.”
She also shared that she had benefited from conversations on communicating with confidence, speaking up, recognition, and ways to fight burnout. “They’re super insightful and practical. We vote on future topics for discussion,” she said, mentioning subjects such as how to be an ally to other women, how to deal with bias as working mothers, saying yes more, and other best practices for women in the mainframe ecosystem.
“Lean In’s tagline is ‘Elevate your career,’ and that’s certainly been the case for me as an active member of the group.”
It wasn’t always that way, she told me. “In year’s past, some well-intentioned former employers had some other programs that were not helpful,” she said. “At the time, they didn’t know the importance of or how to support women in the industry. But today, groups like Lean In are changing things. This group has been great and is well attended by women just starting their careers, many senior executives, and everyone in between.”
The changes in the industry were enough to make Lipp and those like her express excitement for the progress taking- not only for women, but for the growing number of other support groups Broadcom sponsors. These includeg Veterans in IT and the Making Our Strong Community Stronger (MSCS) initiative, the latter of which also provides support and allyship for women in mainframe and has grown to over 300 members. “We’re doing a better job at considering everyone’s diverse needs,” she saids.
Nancy enjoyed relaying her experiences and reflecting on the changes she’s seen in her long and devoted career to both Broadcom and the industry in general. “Being able to talk about these things is validating,” she said. “Realizing as women that we are not alone is a very powerful thing. It’s exciting to think how far we’ve come not only when I first started 40 years ago, but especially in the last 5-10 years.”
Even though Nancy mostly works with males and talks to mostly males as a support rep, she’s happy with the current state of women across the mainframe community. “I’m encouraged by the changes I’ve seen,” She says. “Groups like Lean In and MSCS are making a difference.
I’m encouraged and have renewed excitement for the industry and the next generation of women.” To all women in tech, she said, “I’d recommend finding a group - or starting one! You can elevate your career, too.”
Learn More:
Lean In - https://www.broadcom.com/company/citizenship/workforce
MSCS - https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12632063/