Rapadas: I just want to second what Farida was saying. It really starts from childhood, with your family. I also came from a family of achievers—there are 12 of us but almost everybody graduated with honors. My mother was a summa cum laude, my three older sisters were summa cum laude, so it starts off from there and it wasn’t as if we are being forced to study. In fact, my mother would turn off the light at nine o’clock and say, “it’s better for you to sleep than to study.” But, somehow, there was this pressure from within to achieve and to excel so I think it starts from there. I agree with everything that Wilma has mentioned, but the other one that I remember was what my father taught us—you know how sometimes the ambition of some girls is to have a good husband who will take care of her, etc., what my father always said to us, his daughters, was you have to have a career of your own because, statistically, your husband will die before you. He is a very practical person so he said you have to make sure that you have a career of your own so that if anything happens you can take care of your family by yourself. So that was the thinking that he always nurtured in his daughters; that’s why all of us have careers. So it really starts from how you were raised, your work ethics that starts from school all the way to your career; but the other thing I just wanted to add is really having strong values—integrity, for one. You have to be able to sleep at night knowing that you did your best and that you are at peace with yourself because you maintained your integrity.

CWP: Do you think the Philippine business culture is fair to women who have executive positions in IT? Are there challenges that female CIO face that their male counterparts do not?

Cruz: Well, like I told you, the first question that they had when they brought me in at Smart was, “Is she strong enough?” Since women are often regarded as the weaker sex and if you are in IT and you are in a ‘macho’ organization with very difficult business users, they think you may not be effective or the other perception about women that we are fickle-minded, so they are afraid that we may not be that firm about our decisions. So it’s really a position that requires a person to be tough but what they don’t know is that women are tougher than men emotionally. There just are decisions that you know you have to do; not everybody is going to be happy but I’m here to do my job, not to please everybody because no matter what I do I will not be able to please everybody anyway so I might as well do a good job. At the end of the day, if you know you did a good job, you live a life of integrity and transparency, then you will actually get away with those tough decisions if you are proven right in the end.

Rapadas: I think the Philippine business culture is fairer to women than other cultures. We’ve traveled around the world and I think we are given more opportunity here to excel and to be promoted than in other cultures. Maybe there are initial hurdles that you have to overcome in terms of perceptions or biases but after you do that, it’s really nothing.

CWP: What advice do you then have for female IT professionals aspiring to attain C-level positions?

Cruz: If you look at the new CIO, the CIO of today is not just a technology leader but what is important is that you be a business leader and a change agent so my advice is to develop those technical skills but, at the same time, develop business acumen so that you can propose technology solutions that really meet the needs of the business.

Rapadas: First of all, do not apologize for being female; there’s no shame in being female. In fact it is an advantage, as was said earlier, in terms of nurturing and caring, your people management skills are most probably going to be stronger maybe because we are more sensitive; we can be more accepting of weaknesses and be able to overcome those weaknesses and work on them. So my advice is just do the best you can and excel in whatever you do.

Limpoco: For me, getting to a C-level position is not something that you stumble into; you have to start somewhere, you make that decision that will lead you to the course of your final destination. So I think you really have to make choices—there are tougher choices along the way but just keep your eye on the goal. This is true for both male and female but maybe there just happens to be greater pressure from the family on females.

Rapadas: So another advice is to find a supportive husband.

Eisma: My only advice is not to be intimidated by males or even by other females aspiring for the same position. When you are climbing up the corporate ladder there is always somebody who will pull you down but don’t be intimidated; just do your work and show them what you can do. If you have a vision and you know what you are doing then you will not go astray. So just couple it with hard work and team work and you will be successful.

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