For Marissa Mayer, the former Google executive who was recently named Yahoo!'s new president and CEO, being the only woman in upper-level computer science classes did not faze her. Speaking with the 92nd Street Y in New York City as part of its Campaign for the American Conversation program, Mayer said that she grew up "gender blind," and that she was encouraged early on to pursue science because she was good at it.
"Just asking the question" — of how to get more girls science — "I worry, sometimes, can handicap progress," Mayer told 92Y. She adds that because she never really realized that she was part of a minority group in her field, it didn't affect her success much. "If I had felt more self-conscious along the way, being the only woman, I think it would have actually stifled me a lot more," she said.