34 | Blouse Technology Issue
TECHNOLOGYWhat did you work on together?I worked on one of Peter’s projects, a very cool magazine called The Box,all of the album and tour promotion, merchandise, advertising, assistingwith videos; we put his entire fan club online. We were some of the firstpeople I think to be doing online interaction, and this was in the daysbefore internet browsers.The next logical step was to do all of the design work in-house, so weformed a department with a really talented group of young designersthat took over the work for all of Peter’s and the Real World Recordsartist’s album sleeves. Peter had artists coming through the studio all thetime who needed record sleeves and needed design. It was lots of fun.You mentioned your move to the countryside to raise your girls andfocus on being a mother. Did that decision make it difficult to keepworking and keep up with the fast pace of technology?It wasn’t just about being a woman or a mother; having a career in technologywhether you’re a woman or a man – there’s so much you need todo to keep up, even if it’s just in your particular area of technoculture. Inthe beginning, we were on the edge; we were a part of creating the revolutionin information, communication, and entertainment technologies.Things were happening fast, and they are now moving and acceleratingall the time and the stuff that I don’t know about my field is now much,much larger than the stuff that I do know. But it’s okay, because I don’tthink you have to know everything about everything to understand yourfield and to make an impact in it.I think it’s really important for women to work. It was important for methat I work to set an example for my own daughters and for me to knowenough about technology to be current – in fact, creating currency – andto teach them; I really wanted my daughters to feel comfortable withtechnology and to enjoy it. I bought them drawing programs for the computerwhen they were little, they played with my computer, learned howto be technologically creative with software like Kid Pix and they lovedvideo games like the Sims.It’s one of my regrets that I probably didn’t get to spend enough timewith the girls when they were little. But when you work in technology,when you work in music, when you work in design – you are inevitablyclocking late nights. You sometimes work all through the night and I stilloccasionally do that if I’ve got a deadline. You just have to keep going.It all worked out and now both my daughters work in technology so theyappreciate what it means to have to work to those crazy deadlines.What do your daughters do?Like me, they’re both musical as well as artistic. Neither of them had ahead for math or science and like me they found their way into technologicalfields through the arts and through writing, research and designing.It’s worked out really well for both of them.My elder daughter has got this fantastic job as the lead mobile designerfor Net-A-Porter, the largest online fashion retailer in the world. She’sdesigning new more personal and social ways to interact with style andfashion and editorial content; it’s kind of a dream come true job. Sheknows so much more about designing for mobile than I do now andshe has learned really fast, even though I remember a couple of yearsago she called me up from London and asked, “Mom, can you walk methrough creating a wireframe?” It was her first day in a new position, andshe was learning on her feet – that is what I mean about taking risks!She picked it up really quickly.My younger daughter is also working with fashion at an online luxurygifts company called the Gift Library. She’s recently graduated so she’sstill finding her way, but she’s doing a lot of social media strategy andcontent, writing for all of the different platforms that you have to bepresent and relevant in, for multiple audiences.I’m just so happy to see them both building careers that have their artisticinterests bundled up into interesting new areas of technology. I thinkthat what they and the people they work with are doing will change theway we learn about and buy new products that are useful and delightful.Do you have any advice on how women can balance the demands of acareer in technology and motherhood?The trouble with technology is that you’ve got so many choices. Thereare always lots of different ways of approaching things. Those choicescreate a lot of noise and distraction. I’ve had to be really judicious aboutlearning to make hard decisions. When I’m working, especially if it’s in ateam, I have to say “We’re going to do this and have it done by this time.There may be other things that we could do but we’ll have to try andfigure those out in the next iteration.”Making those hard decisions and trying not to get distracted and work allnight too often is really the challenge. I think women who have childrensometimes get really consumed and caught up with this.From the women I have interviewed for my thesis, it’s clear that mobiletechnology has really helped us balance our demands because it allowsus to be more flexible with our work schedule. But it also means that wedon’t have that wall around our professional lives. The professional andpersonal merge a lot more now, and so again you have to be really quitedisciplined with yourself. It can really pull and push you in different directions.‘Should I be working now or should I be spending more time withmy family or should I be getting to bed early because I’ve got to be upearly tomorrow?’These decisions are difficult for everybody but I think that they’re moredifficult for women because we still seem to have to take on the majorityof the responsibilities with caring for children and the home. Despite thefact that men are pitching in way more than they used to, when it comesright down to it women often take the lead and do most of the work, evenif they have big, full time, professional responsibilities.Women need to learn how to let go of this, to expect to share parentingand caring responsibilities, and let men help them carry the load. Thatwill make the working world more tolerable and more equitable, and betterfor women, for men, and for children too. This has to change, it is wayoverdue, and it will be an improvement for everyone.In our last interview Dessy Daskalov asked, “How are you changing thestatus quo and what are you doing to change the things you don’t likeabout the world?”Well I think that’s pretty simple. The status quo has to be that there aremany more men working in technology than women. That imbalanceaffects the world in fundamental ways. It affects the way that we interactwith each other through technology and most importantly the way wecommunicate.I am changing the status quo by actively getting more women involved intechnology, by being a role model, by teaching them, by including themon my research teams, by talking to them about what they want and bymaking sure that we include women not just in the design process but inthe design outcomes.I really hope that in my lifetime we will achieve a balance, that men andwomen working in technology will create more equitable technologicaloutcomes for both men and women, in both the developed and developingworlds, to share and benefit from equallyblouse.com/interview | 35