Jobs, the mother

By Zeng Jinyan, blogger and human rights activist

© Ai Xiaoming

My five years and seven months old daughter has been under single parenting since she was born. Her father was detained and sent to jail for three and a half years for the crime of “inciting subversion of the state power”, which was a price of his writings and international press interviews in an autocratic state. We moved to Hong Kong last September after I had been prohibited from travelling to — as well as abroad ― for five years. Meanwhile, her father is still prohibited to travel and join us in Hong Kong.

Because of that, as soon as we arrived in Hong Kong, I bought an iPad, which was my first time to buy an Apple product. Apple products are too expensive to me, a de facto single mother, even though their function indeed greatly facilitates me in dealing with researching and teaching tasks, parenting and social activism in my everyday life. No longer after the purchase, my daughter claimed the iPad as hers. Now, she contacts her father via Skype any time she wants to and thanks to that she spends a lot of story time with him before going to bed.

So I wonder what if Steve Jobs had a single mother parenting experience. I am not sure how many distant families benefit from Apple products and Skype. But I am very sure that there are lots of people in rural China and less developed areas around the world that are left behind. In 2012, a 17 years old senior secondary school student, Mr. Wang, sold his kidney for 20,000 CNY (around 2,400 EUR) in underground organ transplantation market. His purpose was to buy an iPhone and an iPad.

«I found more relevant to reflect on whether Jobs believed in feminity not masculinity, partnership instead of domination»

If Jobs had been a mother witnessing the whole process, she would have probably raised the critical question to the public: who is left behind in the high speed development of IT technology and IT products? What should we do to make opportunities, to guarantee empowerment for those who are left behind?

In fact, when thinking about the main question of this blog, I found more relevant to reflect on whether Jobs believed in femininity not masculinity, partnership instead of domination.

Before I moved to Hong Kong, I hardly used mobile phone for social activism. Even if all suspected software is deleted, its security is still doubtful, because all Chinese telecommunication companies are active in implementing state surveillance orders and policies. Even leaving behind all the politic risks, we still cannot do our online activism as we wish, for either the social media websites are blocked by Chinese government or the contents are censored, filtered, and even deleted by the website companies which cooperate with the government in the implementation of censorship policy.

Would a female Jobs have considered installing virtual private networks (VPN) in her products as a factory setting? That would have definitely been an act of solidarity with the victims of state surveillance and censorship on freedom of expression around the world.

A portrait of Stephanie Jobs

By Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin, Vice-Chancellor, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

If Steve Jobs had been a woman, she would have probably been named Stephanie and would have started and co-founded Apple in her family’s kitchen, not in her family’s garage. Stephanie Jobs would have completed her bachelor’s degree and continued to obtain a PhD. She would have postponed marriage to avoid the hassle of balancing work and family life. She would have started her career in a male-dominated division of an IT-company and would have become the first woman to rise to its top CEO position. She would have been a dynamic, visionary and charismatic leader driving the company to greatness.

As a leader, Stephanie would have worked extremely hard, moved very fast and made creative decisions. While Steve was job-centered, she would have neglected neither her employees nor their families. Stephanie would have used the same presentation style for launching her Apple products to motivate and instill in her employees, particularly women, the need for achievement, power and affiliation, while meeting the goals of their personal lives. She would have used her CEO position and charismatic leadership style to help her workers identify with her on the emotional level, including sharing her battle with cancer. She would not have dared to be different, and would have made decisions outside the normal rules .

«As a leader, Stephanie would have worked extremely hard, moved very fast and made creative decisions»

In business, as in life, she would have cooperated rather than competed. She would have been very focused and clear in what she wanted, pouring her ideas into her products with passion and intensity. All these would have been part of her perfectionism in creating the most beautiful and highly-sought after consumer products, as well as leading one of the most successful technology companies in the world today.

If Jobs had been a woman, she would have paid more serious attention to her health. After being diagnosed with cancer, she would have stepped away from Apple and devoted her life to her family and charity. She would have developed a Foundation and devoted her talents and genius to solving incurable diseases, environmental problems and human conflicts around the world. If Steve Jobs had been a woman, she would not only made our world more beautiful with iPods, iPads, iTunes, Macintosh and Pixar Movies, but she would have also used her products to make our world a safer place to live in.

Could Steve Jobs have been a woman?

By Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice at London Business School and founder of the Hot Spots Movement

Over the last couple of years my team and I have worked with companies around the world in a Future of Work Consortium where we have looked at technology trends including how Gen Z’s (those under the age of around 12) think about work and technology. Will this generation create another Steve Jobs? Certainly this generation are true mobile mavens, they take for granted a world of smartphones, tablets and high-speed wireless Internet, untethered from the constraints of a landline or a traditional Internet connection and they don’t distinguish between online and offline as they are connected all the time. We have video clips of kids younger than two years old working proficiently with iPads, often using games before they can even talk. What is interesting is that we found no real gender difference in how these young generations use technology. At the same time technology is transforming the gender roles.

«In the future we can expect many jobs to be done anywhere anytime, without rigid working hours and the demise of that long-standing male bastion: the office»

Generation Z will begin to enter the workforce within the next 10 years. What will they experience? Both men and women will have lifelong experience of using communications and media technologies that are at once sophisticated and simple to use. We can expect many jobs to be done anywhere anytime. With the formality of rigid working hours we will also see the demise of that long-standing male bastion – “the office”.

Generation Z are growing up in a world with increasing equality between men and women and where single parents and same-sex parent families are no longer unusual. We can imagine that this generation will be more accepting of gender equality. Take a look at the Becoming Chaz documentary, where Chaz Bono found it was the youngest members of his family that took his gender transition the easiest whilst his mom needed more time to accept her child’s decision.

«Generation Z are growing up in a world with increasing equality between men and women and where single parents and same-sex parent families are no longer unusual»

I believe that gender equality and communication technologies will be key aspects of the information age. There are currently few women leading companies – and very few leading technology companies. But the experiences of our youngsters suggest that this will change. The next Steve Jobs could indeed be a woman.

Innovations by, with and for women

By Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Comission

If Steve Jobs had been a woman, millions of girls and women might have a different attitude to technology today, both towards careers in technology and life as an entrepreneur. Of course many women were inspired by Steve Jobs anyway —his gender didn't change his greatness—. But it is striking that very few of the recent technology gurus —the people who built global empires out of nothing but their ideas— have been women. It's not because there aren't great women —we've even seen them lead major tech companies— but it shows us the digital world is underperforming compared to its potential.

There are role models out there we can do more to support, and I've had the pleasure to meet some of them, people like Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg or the UK's Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox. But we shouldn't just focus on today or on one or two names. Women have a great technology story: too many forget the first ever computer programmer was Ada, the Countess Lovelace in the 19th century. And the way forward is to get millions of women interested in technology, not to get one global technology company led by a woman.

«Demand for ICT professionals outstrips supply, and with women underrepresented in this sector means we need to ensure they feel careers in this sector are good options for them»

At a time when millions need jobs, there is one sector where demand outstrips supply: ICT professionals. With women underrepresented in ICT, that means we need to do much more to ensure women feel training and careers in technology are good options for them.

We must shatter the image that ICT is about geeks programming complex code in their lonely bedrooms. Not very attractive for many girls and women —or men! The image is not helpful and it's not true. These days, ICT is not just about coding, it's about connecting and creativity. It's not just about competitive games, winning, violence; it's about innovation, sharing and learning. Its not about judging new devices on their vital statistics, on how big your RAM is or how powerful your ROM; its about how sleekly they are designed, how easy they are to use, how attuned to what ordinary people actually need.

Second, I know a lot of women are concerned about work-life balance. A perfectionist like Steve is not a realistic role model then for most women. But for nearly everyone technology can help you work better around your family and social needs. That's true whether you are using e-Bay to set up a home business, a smartphone to send emails while looking after a sick child, or using Skype to meet colleagues from the comfort of your living room.

«By creating material that is of interest to women, and letting women create stuff for themselves, we can really show everyone that ICT is for them»

From another angle, we should value role in the ICT user community, and respect women as a market for ICT products and services. By creating material that is of interest to women —and letting women create stuff for themselves— we can really show everyone that ICT is for them. Women and families are increasingly the customers for the products of new technology. Tech-enabled wonders like Toy Story —which, of course, Steve was involved in— certainly keeps my grandkids happy. The modern internet can also offer safe online playgrounds for kids: somewhere where they can learn and play, create and connect with friends and family. Plus more and more sites —such as bloggers' networks like the English language Mumsnet— are targeted at and used by women.

Here there is a virtuous circle: because the more women see the online world as for them, the more they'll want to get involved in that designing —and the more they'll see ICT as something that needs and welcomes them—. Then we'll really see more innovations that are by women, with women and for women.