Despite national conversations about gender diversity in tech, women are still underrepresented, underpaid, and often discriminated against in the tech industry, numbers show.

According to a 2020 report from McKinsey, diversity is critical to IT performance.

Diverse teams perform better, hire better talent, have more engaged members, and retain workers better than those that do not focus on diversity and inclusion.

In this episode of Why It Matters, our guest is a female tech top brass, who's based in the San Francisco Bay Area and a Woman of Influence in the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

LynLee Foo speaks with Kavitha Mariappan, Executive Vice President of Customer Experience & Transformation at Zscaler, to discuss issues such as the ongoing layoffs, the outlook of the tech sector, plus why is there a need for more women and girls in STEM and what can they bring to the table in this male-dominated industry.

This podcast is produced and edited by Anthea Ng (nganthea@sph.com.sg)