A Google Perspective on Women and the Future of Technology

Marissa Mayer joined Google in 1999 as Google's first female engineer and led the user interface and web server teams at that time.She is now Google's Vice President of Search Products & User Experience, having become the youngest woman, at age 33 in 2008, ever to be included on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list (#50).

Listen to this podcast, where Mayer answers questions from the Changemakers community about innovation, women, and the future of technology. "I don't feel like a woman at Google," she says. "I feel like a geek at Google. And that is something that is really wonderful."

Mayer leads Google's product management efforts on search products – web search, images, news, books, products, maps, Google Earth, Google Toolbar, Google Desktop, Google Health, Google Labs and more. Her efforts have included designing and developing Google's search interface, internationalizing the site to more than 100 languages, defining Google News, Gmail, and Orkut, and launching more than 100 features and products on Google.com. Several patents have been filed on her work in artificial intelligence and interface design.

In her spare time, Mayer also organizes Google Movies – outings a few times a year to see the latest blockbusters – for 6,000+ people (employees plus family and friends). Concurrently with her full-time work at Google, Mayer has taught introductory computer programming classes at Stanford to more than 3,000 students. Stanford has recognized her with the Centennial Teaching Award and the Forsythe Award for her outstanding contribution to undergraduate education.

Graduating with honors, Mayer received her bachelor's degree in symbolic systems and her master's degree in computer science from Stanford University. For both degrees, she specialized in artificial intelligence. She also holds an honorary doctorate of engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.

Mayer has been featured in various publications, including Newsweek ("10 Tech Leaders of the Future"), Red Herring ("15 Women to Watch"), Business 2.0 ("Silicon Valley Dream Team"), BusinessWeek, and Fast Company. 

Changemakers interviewed Mayer as part of its podcast series on the critical role technology plays in improving the lives of women around the world.

The podcast series is part of the Women | Tools | Technology Challenge, sponsored by Ashoka Changemakers and ExxonMobil in partnership with the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) that also included interviews with Laurel Touby of mediabistro.com, Leslie Harris, the President and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology, and Sheila Kromholtz of the Center for Responsive Politics.

Women | Tools | Technology:  Building Opportunities & Economic Power is an innovative online Challenge that identified transformative solutions for promoting women's economic advancement through technology, with a focus on women from developing countries. Sponsored by Ashoka Changemakers and ExxonMobil in partnership with the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), the Challenge received 268 entries from 67 countries. Efforts are part of ExxonMobil's Women's Economic Opportunity Initiative, which has invested over $32 million since its launch in 2005.

On June 2, ten finalists were chosen by an expert panel of judges. The winners will be announced June 29 and will be invited to participate in collaboration workshops later this year.