Women in Tech – Arlene Martin

As a company who employs top-tier talent to work with tech titans like Microsoft and Facebook, we have an intentional focus on championing female leaders in the tech space. As we celebrate #WomensHistoryMonth, we’ll be highlighting several of our employees as part of our ‘Women in Tech’ feature. This week the #JeffreyM Team is enthused to spotlight Arlene Martin, Senior Product Manager, as she shares her perspectives and experiences:

Who are some of your “sheroes”?

I love all stories of women and others that have achieved tremendous accomplishments with “first in their field”, “defying the odds”, and “dismantling the patriarchy” sort of stories. Sheroes of the likes of Stacy Abrams, Malala Yousafzai, Chloe Zhao, Kamala Harris, and Hillary Clinton I certainly celebrate. But for me, these women are at such a pinnacle of achievement that I find it hard to relate. Instead, I find inspiration from regular women that may not have headlines with their names in it. I like to celebrate regular, but equally phenomenal women who have inspiring stories of their own, such as those that may have been the first in their family to go to college, immigrants seeking a better life, women re-entering the workplace, leaving abusive relationships, etc. The stories of these women are stories that are more relatable that I can better identify with to inspire me.

How long have you worked in the tech industry and what drew you to the field?

I have worked in the tech industry for about 20 years and I came upon it really by happenstance and opportunity. My undergraduate degree is in biomedical engineering and I worked in that field for several years learning that I wouldn’t go far without a PhD. Not wanting to spend that many years in school, I instead went to get my MBA (and earned a Masters in Engineering along the way). I had intended on going back into biotech after I graduated, but I was offered an opportunity to go to Microsoft and work on the Xbox team; a far departure from my original plan. I couldn’t say no to that opportunity and thought I could always go back to biotech, but I never looked back.

Most exciting project you’ve worked on?

One exciting project that I worked on was the original Xbox. It was a new product introduction and new industry entry for Microsoft in gaming consoles. Another exciting project that I worked on is my own non-work, related passion project where I created a dance festival focusing on diversity on the dance stage. This started back in 2017 before “diversity & inclusion” was the huge initiative that it is today. As a dancer and dance fan in the local Seattle dance community, I found that there was not a lot of diverse representation on stage. Rather than sit back and wait for it to happen, a friend and I took the opportunity to create our own dance festival where we could highlight diversity on stage and Tint Dance Festival was born. We were going on our 3^rd successful season when COVID hit and we had to cancel for 2020. We’re keeping a close eye on whether we’ll be able to come back for 2021.

Your perspective on the challenges and opportunities women face in the tech industry?

Although improvements have been made over the years, women in tech continue to feel challenged by the systemic and organizational issues that cause gender inequities. Changes in attitudes of social norms; support of STEM programs building the pipeline of women into tech; and realization of tech companies that diversity in the workforce improves profitability are creating better equity in the tech industry. Women need to continue to support other women in mentoring, advocating, and bringing them into spaces to build better representation and equity. Where I see opportunity in progressing this change is in allyship. Like any social movement, allyship is what raises all ships and for women in tech this means that we need allyship from men until we can overcome the systemic and organizational issues that cause gender inequities.

Are you involved/passionate about any non-profits?

As mentioned earlier, I am the founder and director of the Tint Dance Festival, which is a not for profit organization. I’m also a board member of the Seattle International Dance Festival / Khambatta Dance Company. I have previously been involved with NAWMBA Seattle, my alumni group, Toastmasters, and Product Management Consortium, but alas there are only so many hours in a day and gas in the tank.