"I try to watch my kids behavior, and I try to get insights from that, and understand how are they thinking about media, what are they watching. She credits her children with priceless user feedback on what YouTube is doing well - and where the platform could improve.
And she says that being a mother has actually helped her do her job better. Like so many working parents, Wojcicki is juggling a big job - and a big family. Last year, Time Magazine dubbed Wojcicki "the most powerful woman on the internet." I think it is that big, in terms of how much our society is being changed." I compare this to the revolution where people were able to read and write for the first time, and the printing press. "It's really sad for me that we don't have enough women that are part of that. a force that is changing pretty much all parts of our society," Wojcicki argues. And just 24% of leadership positions and 19% of tech roles are held by women. are held by women.Īt Google, 31% of global employees are women.
Wojcicki is perturbed by the dearth of women in top technology jobs in Silicon Valley. And Silicon Valley is also focused on having more women, more diversity." "It's a talent business, getting the right engineers, the right leaders. "I think Silicon Valley has led on this because Silicon Valley, at the end of the day, is really focused on talent," Wojcicki said. So why have tech companies seemingly led the way on parental leave? In making the announcement, Facebook's VP of People, Lori Goler, posted: "Studies show that when working parents take time to be with their newborns, outcomes are better for the children and families." Facebook now offers four months paid leave to new mothers and fathers. Companies like Microsoft, Adobe, and Netflix all generous new parental leave policies last year. Google certainly isn't the only company in Silicon Valley offering lengthy periods of paid time off for new parents. Related: Melinda Gates is doubling down on this issue Nobody had ever done it before at the company.'"įast Forward nearly two decades and she's helped lead the charge on family leave at Google - for men and women - which now offers new mothers 18 weeks of paid leave and new fathers 12 weeks. So it wasn't really clear." She said, "'Hey Larry, hey Sergey, I'm going to take a little time off. "When I first started I don't think we really had an HR department. Wojcicki was the first woman to take maternity leave in the nascent days of Google. "It was truly because I needed help paying the mortgage."Įventually, Page and Brin convinced her to join their team. She'd agreed to rent it to Brin and Page (then PhD students at Stanford) to bring in some extra dough. Larry Page and Sergey Brin had been running the fledgling company out of Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park, California at the time. In 1998, Wojcicki left her marketing job at Intel and became employee number 16 at Google. Wojcicki was one of the first woman hired at Google - and now she's the only female CEO under Google's behemoth umbrella. Related: Push for more women on tech boards gains steam Oh, and in the meantime raising her five children.
#Susan wojcicki tv
As CEO of YouTube (now with over 1 billion users a month) Wojcicki has her eyes on changing TV as we know it - while advocating for more women in top roles at tech companies.