On Tuesday, two days after Patricia Arquette and Meryl Streep used the Oscar spotlight to highlight their concerns about the pay gap between men and women, presumed Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton challenged the male-dominated tech industry to be more inclusive of female talent.

According to USA Today, speaking before a crowd of 5,000 at the Lead On Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women, the former U.S. secretary of state argued that innovative industries have a particular responsibility when it comes to crushing the "glass ceiling."

"We're going backward in a field that is supposed to be all about moving forward," she insisted. "We cannot afford to leave all that talent sitting on the sidelines."

With teams from Oracle, Ericsson and Intel among those in attendance, Clinton slammed the atmosphere she said marked some of Silicon Valley's booming startups, Reuters reports.

"It's been almost a Wild West environment," she argued. "I think a lot of women find that distasteful, to be in a situation sort of resembling a locker room."

The former New York senator also had some praise to give out. Clinton applauded Google's decision to reveal the gender and racial breakdown of its workforce and urged other tech companies -- whose employees are predominantly white or Asian men -- to take similar steps, USA Today noted.

"In our growing multicultural country, inclusivity is not a 'nice to have.' It's a 'must have,'" Clinton insisted. "Companies should be held to account. It requires both men and women to speak up."

The California event was the first in a series of three speeches the Democratic star plans to give to predominantly female audiences in the coming weeks, Reuters said. Clinton is the favorite to win the Democratic nomination by a huge margin, and her remarks suggest "she may make gender inequality a main theme in her likely 2016 presidential bid," the news service hypothesized.

Clinton has not formally announced her candidacy, but the former first lady said she was "obviously" considering another White House run, Politico reported. Her decision, she said, would come "all in good time."

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