While the term "tech bro" specifically refers to men, particularly those who embody stereotypical "bro" traits in the tech industry, women can certainly be part of tech culture, but they are not typically referred to as "tech bros."
The same goes to Marissa Mayer, who is probably one of the most influential female tech bros out there in the industry.
After having a successful career at Google, and becoming CEO of Yahoo!, she co-founded a company that further cemented her name in tech.
In the era where AI is moving fast, Mayer as one of these "tech bros," continues her reign as an alpha female in Silicon Valley, which is exceptionally rare in the tech industry.
As a tech person, Marissa Mayer has her ears close to the ground.
Way before the boom of AI that happens after the revelation of ChatGPT by OpenAI, Mayer knows how the technology could advance humanity for the better. And by knowing how these "bros" work, she uses her experience to embrace the advancement of AI.
But unlike most others who either abuse the technology or fear it, Mayer is like referring AI to the sun.
To her, the technology is like the bringer of light. The life-giver, bright and shiny, and endlessly giving.
As a woman, she prefers a softer side of things, seeing things through the lens of a motherly approach.
After all, as the co-founder of Sunshine, a company that creates AI to empower family and social life with photo sharing, contact managing, and event planning, Mayer considers AI as a handy tool that can help people do the repetitive and mundane tasks.
Humans and AI should become friends, or buddies.
Speaking to Wired, she said that:
"At some point, I bought Sunshine.com."
"Then, when we started this company, we knew that we wanted to do things that were upbeat and enlightening, things that involved AI. AI really does enlighten—and it’s potentially a renewable resource that can be very generative, just like sunshine is."
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But regardless of her softer stance, Mayer's past as a professional was forged in the world of tech bros, which has indirectly influenced her unique stance about feminism.
Mayer was one of the most influential and powerful women in business for more than many years, and at the age of 33, she was the youngest woman ever listed on the Fortune magazine.
She was also named in the Time 100, becoming the first woman listed as number one on Fortune magazine's annual list of the top 40 business stars under 40 years old.
These only scratched the surface of what Mayer was during the peak of her professional career.
For more than many years, she serves as a role model for many women in the industry, and showed that women could rise to leadership roles in major tech companies.
However, her rejection of the "feminist" label highlighted the complexities of modern feminism, where some women prefer to focus on individual empowerment and success, while others emphasize systemic change and collective progress for women as a whole.
But still, Mayer, who left Yahoo! after it was acquired by Verizon and prioritizes her family, is still a geek at heart.
To her, geekery still supersedes gender.
She recalled how co-founder of Google, Larry Page, brought in an FM transmitter, and that people at the office quickly fired questions about the thing.
"To me, that’s emblematic of geek details. Everyone was in it. We want to take new technologies and apply them to new problems. In that moment, passion is a gender-neutralizing force," she said.