Women in Tech: Meet the Amazing Females Behind Your Fave Apps & Productivity Tools

Men have historically dominated the tech industry, but women have risen in the field over the years and continued to thrive despite the challenges thrown at them. You might not even realize it, but women have probably led the development of some of your favorite apps and productivity tools!

Here are five notable women in tech today that you should remember.

Melanie Perkins, Canva CEO

From Melanie Perkins’ Official LinkedIn Profile

That’s right – a woman heads this free-to-use online design platform. In 2007, 19-year-old Perkins attended university and taught her classmates how to design using programs like InDesign and Photoshop. Since these programs were difficult to comprehend and use, Perkins envisioned a platform everyone could access without a huge budget or advanced design skills.

After over a hundred rejections, Canva’s chief executive officer launched the design software in 2013 with her now-husband and Canva COO Cliff Obrecht and CPO Cameron Adams. Now, the 35-year-old Filipino Australian entrepreneur is among the richest women in the world, and a self-made one at that. She’s also changing the tech industry by addressing gender disparity – Canva currently has 41% female representation, which, according to the Economic Times, is higher than the 28% industry average.

Mira Murati, OpenAI CTO

From Mira Murati’s Official Twitter

As chief technology officer at OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research laboratory and deployment company, Mira Murati is responsible for leading the teams behind DALL-E (which uses AI to create artwork based on text prompts) and the insanely popular ChatGPT (a revolutionary AI chatbot that can produce human-like responses based on written instructions from users). Contrary to other companies who choose to keep their AI research under wraps, Murati is a huge advocate of public testing, and it’s thanks to her we normal folks can enjoy these tech innovations for free.

Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO

From Instagram

Susan Wojcicki was the 16th employee of Google and the company’s first marketing manager. Because of her pivotal role in Google’s acquisition of YouTube, she was appointed as chief executive officer of the video-sharing platform in 2014. In February 2023, the 54-year-old announced that she would be resigning after more than two decades with Google to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.”

During her time as CEO, Wojcicki oversaw the release of several products, including YouTube Gaming, YouTube Music, YouTube Premium, and YouTube TV. Under her leadership, the platform has grown to more than 2 billion users.

Kate Maxwell, Microsoft CTO

From Kate Maxwell’s Official Twitter

While she only joined Microsoft in 2020, this woman holds a tough position as Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer for World Wide Defense and Intelligence. She focuses on delivering world-class capability and digital transformation to the international public sector community and unlocking advanced capabilities for clients like productivity tools for unmanned teaming, cyber ops capabilities, and more.

Erica Joy Baker, Patreon former Senior Engineering Manager

From Erica Joy Baker's Official LinkedIn Profile

While she’s currently the Head of Technology at Parkwood Entertainment (the entertainment company and record label founded by Queen Bey herself!), Baker has led groundbreaking developments for various apps, including Slack, Microsoft, and Patreon. At Patreon, Erica helped content creators find audiences and secure funding. As one of the few black female leaders in tech, Baker also advocates for diversity and inclusion, as well as expanding access to tech education.

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