Tired of Talking About Diversity? Too Bad
These strong women in tech have plenty to say, and they're not going to stop speaking up.
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“Only 5 percent of the Fortune 500 CEOs are female. It’s time to make gender representation in executive leadership a top priority. No excuses. It’s in the data: Companies that formally make the advancement of women a priority by increasing women in leadership and taking steps to alleviate unconscious gender biases are: outperforming their competition financially; [improving employee satisfaction; and increasing innovation.”
– Alexandra Sardarian, Worldwide Product Marketing, Watson Marketing, IBM
“I celebrated International Women’s Day [on March 8] with a group of professional women at a conference to raise money for an organization called Nerdy Girl Success. Its mission is to expose, educate and mentor middle-school and high-school girls through after school and summer camp programs. I think the women that are gathering today to support this nonprofit [are] here because we each understand that there is still more to be done to reach full gender equality both in business and at home, and we want to help in any way we can to help the next generations get a little bit closer than where we are today.”
– Nancy Sabino, CEO, SabinoCompTech
“Step out of your comfort zone and always keep learning new things: [That] is the key to success.”
– Daisy Yu, Sr. Data Scientist at Cox Automotive Inc.
“This is something that is extremely important to me because I know what it feels like to be treated as an equal as well as what it feels like to be treated less than, outside of my bubble. My husband and I are not only partners in life but in business as well. We share responsibilities in both equally so i know it’s possible. Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that women’s rights were men’s rights too, and this is true. There is room for both men and women to thrive in their own rights without taking from the other. I for one am 100 percent grateful that my husband shares this mentality because we need strong men who are doing their part in the journey of equal treatment and opportunity for all.”
– Nancy Sabino
“Women are natural collaborators and community builders. Our leadership on teams and executive boards is proven to increase the diversity of thought within an organization, create a more inclusive culture and generate higher profitability. Invite more women to join your teams, lead your initiatives, and sit on your boards. We are stronger together. An inclusive culture will lead to a more innovative, collaborative and customer-centric company.”
– Jen Anaya, VP Marketing, Ingram Micro
“We must make deliberate decisions to create spaces for women to take on greater leadership roles in business and government and encourage and support them in order for them to overcome their fear of “not being able to do it all.” Do not pressure women to choose career over family — or family over career. Both give value and meaning to our lives and our communities. Rather, foster the environment and provide the opportunity for us to do both effectively.”
– Alexandra Sardarian
“Be aware of unconscious bias. We all have them. As leaders, we need to set the example and break away from social stereotypes to build a more diverse working environment – and again, not just in gender or race, but of thought and motivation.”
– Jen Anaya
“I believe that if more women are to enter the tech sector, we need to start young, showing girls that tech can be fun. I started coding when I was about eight years old. My parents bought a computer and I was hooked. It was fun learning how it worked, creating something on a computer. There is so much scope for creativity in tech – more than people think.”
– Svenja de Vos, chief technology officer, Leaseweb
“Support one another! It’s important to know we are not alone in our desire to see all women empowered, elevated and realize their full potential.”
– Sandra Glaser Cheek, Vice President, Global Partner Sales, Ciena
“When I started my technology career 22 years ago (incidentally, with an MSP, although we didn’t use that term back then), I found myself as the only female with a direct technology role in a company of about 200 employees — and where technology was the business. Fast-forward through roles in several software companies and I certainly saw that dynamic shift and the gender gap start to tighten as women popped up around me in roles in engineering, software development and as technology leaders. I continue to see that gap close every day and currently work in an environment filled with talented, strong and creative female professionals and technologists.”
– Taunia Kipp, Global EVP, Kaseya IT Management Solutions
“There is no better time than now to create a difference in the world of the women around you, and you don’t have to be a woman to help women. To all the amazing men out there in our industry, please support women, advocate for them, buy from them, invite them into the discussion when they are left out and work to provide the right opportunities … “
– Janet Schijns, CEO, JS Group
“The worst advice my mother ever gave was to never learn to type. When she was growing up, if you were a woman and could type, you were destined to be everyone’s secretary. She didn’t understand the importance computers would play in our world. My husband didn’t grow up with that stereotype, so he types 100 [words per minute} and the best I can do is peck away at 30 wpm.”
– Karin Fields, CEO/COO, MicroCorp
“The worst advice my mother ever gave was to never learn to type. When she was growing up, if you were a woman and could type, you were destined to be everyone’s secretary. She didn’t understand the importance computers would play in our world. My husband didn’t grow up with that stereotype, so he types 100 [words per minute} and the best I can do is peck away at 30 wpm.”
– Karin Fields, CEO/COO, MicroCorp
As I was researching a story for International Women’s Day, last Friday, I was once again struck by the lack of energy around recent conversations about diversity.
It’s called Diversity Fatigue, and it’s a real thing. For decades, companies have promoted diversity workshops, sensitivity training, inclusion programs and hiring quotas. Here in the IT channel, there’s at least one keynote per year from a high-profile speaker standing in front of a crowd of hundreds talking about innovation bias and the diversity imperative.
I want to be clear: The vast majority of men I know respect and value their female colleagues, direct reports and superiors just as much as they do the males they work with, and when it comes to inclusion initiatives, they’re all in. But there are definite pockets of men in our industry who make it clear they’re tired of talking about diversity. After all, women hold some of the highest offices in the land and occupy executive seats in some of the world’s most valuable companies. What more do we want? More to the point, what more do we want from them?
To be fair, I hear this from many women as well. I’ve spent a great deal of my journalistic career talking to women in technology about their experiences, and you might be surprised at the number of females who tell me that women, in essence, need to suck it up. The door has been opened for us. It’s up to us to wedge our foot in there and shove.
In a sense, they’re right. It is up to us to push our way in; no one will do it for us. But no one is asking for that. All we want is our chance to earn the right to open that door, to walk through and be judged on merit. That simply is not yet a factual reality for women.
Last year, Atlassian’s second annual State of Diversity Report showed that Diversity Fatigue is real, but not necessarily the way you may think. It isn’t that diversity and inclusion efforts aren’t seen as worthwhile endeavors. People are just tired of all the talk without seeing many results.
What many don’t seem to understand is that we aren’t just fighting for equal opportunity in the workplace today. We’re struggling to come from behind, carrying the weight of generations of past women for whom a professional career simply wasn’t a possibility. And fighting to overturn a status quo, as any study of historical civil rights movements will show, doesn’t come easy or fast. We’re struggling to turn the tide of history and thousands of years of ingrained social structures designed to disenfranchise women. We don’t make 80 cents on the dollar because we don’t know how to negotiate or we’re less competent than our male peers. We’re working with a systemic handicap — not of ability, ambition or acuity, but of history.
Men have held positions of power in government, professions and the family unit for many thousands of years; in contrast, women weren’t even allowed to vote in this country until 1920. It was 1980 before the Supreme Court ruled that sexual harassment counts as sexual discrimination in the workplace. Companies until 1978 had the right to fire women because they were pregnant, and these women weren’t guaranteed their jobs until FMLA was passed in 1993. Let me put some historical perspective around that: That means the mothers of the vast majority of millennials in this country – you know, those lazy young upstarts no one can stop complaining about – had no legal protection in place guaranteeing they wouldn’t lose their jobs because they had a baby. It’s that recent.
No one is saying that the current social and political climate still supports that level of systemic suppression of women. But those who think 30 years of talking about it – and let’s be honest, conversations around structured efforts toward inclusion only really began in earnest in the last 10 years, probably even fewer in tech – is enough to reverse thousands of years of social habit occupy a space of significant naiveté about the glacial pace of social change.
Women are paid less than men. Promoted at lower rates. Offered fewer speaking engagements. Assumed to be primary caretakers yet not given the professional flexibility to continue to grow their careers during motherhood. In the infamous Elephant in the Valley study, which examines sexism and sexual harassment in the tech industry, 60 percent of women reported unwanted sexual advances, and one in three women said she feared for her personal safety because of work-related circumstances. Our own president has been accused of sexual misconduct 23 times. Our careers often rise and fall on how we react to sexual harassment.
There’s no question that things are getting better for women in tech, but it’s due to that relentless discussion around inclusion and the importance of diversity at all levels of organizations. Recent current events have brought that discussion to the forefront as women in all sectors and all walks of life demand their voices receive equal consideration as those of men. Progress is being made because of the same discussions so many are tired of hearing, and the conversation is only growing louder.
I reached out to some of the strongest women in technology I know to ask their thoughts on being a female in this industry. Their answers are frank, varied and insightful. Most importantly, they demonstrate the type of female in technology that has gotten us this far — the type of woman who will work to make sure our daughters won’t have to wedge their foot in a door and shove in order to be recognized for their talent and intelligence. Someday, they’ll be able to walk through side-by-side with the men and be judged on their performance rather than gender and with the unconscious bias that comes with it. And we will only bring that day about if we don’t stop the discussion.
There’s an annual spate of tolerance for diversity talk on International Women’s Day. Here at Channel Futures, we want to make it clear that conversation isn’t relegated to one day. Click through the slideshow above to hear the contributions these powerful women have to the ongoing discussion about gender diversity in the workplace.
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