Gender, Diversity & Inclusion

Posted by Allan Steinmetz on 13 July 2017

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I was having a social lunch on Saturday at a friend’s house. The male companion of one of our friends who was visiting from Chicago, a tenured professor of applied electrical engineering, made a comment that started a heated a discussion. He said that he didn’t think that women were discriminated for opportunities in the sciences or technology, at least at his university. He thought the fact that the population at his university is over 70% male didn’t seem to make a difference – “Women had the same opportunities as men”. I thought one of our other female friends who was sitting across the table was going to launch across the table and strangle him with her bare hands. She has been in business for over 25 years, has a PhD and is a CEO of a biotech nonprofit. She said that women are discriminated in the sciences all the time. She continued saying something to the effect, ”that women were being held back because groping white men were reaching up under their skirts and holding them back.” Wow! Yes, lunch was a little uncomfortable after that point, but we made got through it with serious discussion, fine wine and laughter.

To me, it was an example of unintentional gender, diversity and inclusion bias that happens in our corporate, technological and academic worlds all the time. In my opinion, it has a terrible impact on employee engagement and a company’s ability to recruit top talent. It’s no different from not having an environmental/green policy in place. Talent and employees, in today’s world, desire a working environment that is environmentally conscious, gender-neutral, diverse and inclusive of people from different walks of life. It contributes to higher levels of employee satisfaction and ultimately improves their ability to attract and retain talent. In today’s environment, especially among millennials, candidates are more likely to choose a company that has a gender neutral and D&I environment than one that does not.

As I was walking home I remind myself of the current controversy regarding diversity, inclusion and issues of gender bias and discrimination in Silicon Valley, from the boys’ club atmosphere of startups to problems at tech giants. We have all heard the recent stories about Uber and how its CEO was forced out for allowing a sexist culture, and Snapchat not engineering filters that worked with black profile photo’s. Is it intentional? Probably not. But it happens all the time. And unless we bring it forward it will not get the attention that is required.

Implicitly, we know that women have been discriminated by VCs and tech firms for a long time. The Atlantic magazine, did an in-depth piece on sexism in the Silicon Valley tech scene last month. Last year’s, they reported “Elephant in the Valley” study that surveyed more than 200 senior-level women in Silicon Valley and found that 60% had reported experienced unwanted sexual advances. The same report found that 66% of the women surveyed felt “excluded from key social/networking opportunities because of gender.”

New D&I data is being released by the tech giants for the first time. The findings are really quite interesting. The gender bias is not limited to just Silicon Valley. On average, the US female, population is 50%. The percentage that are whites are 69%, percent that are Asian are 4%, Latino 12%, and African American are also 12%. However, within the tech sector, only Pinterest comes close to the average with 44 % who are women. In general, the tech sector is NOT diverse or inclusive.

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When I started digging into the numbers; I really was really surprised. Doing what is right morally comes first. Secondarily, If company’s know these statistics and understood the consequences on high employee engagement, productivity and return on investment, maybe they would devote more time to doing what is right morally.

As an entrepreneur and CEO, I believe there are many things companies can do to prevent gender bias, encourage diversity and inclusion and create an environment that’s conducive and positive and attract talent you need. Here are my suggestions:

  1. Establish an open culture where people are free to express their concerns and issues regarding sexism, diversity and inclusion.
  2. Zero tolerance. If you see discrimination taking place call it out; have discussions - get out into the open.
  3. Avoid gender bias behavior/language that promotes generalities - don’t leave it for granted. You must work hard to reverse any inkling of bias
  4. Training/onboarding - once new employees are hired make sure they are steeped in the company culture, openness and zero tolerance policies regard to gender, diversity and inclusion
  5. Establish a meritocracy culture where people are rewarded based on their contributions and efforts, not age, sex, nationality or race.
  6. Celebrate diversity and allow people to express their backgrounds in a neutral nonjudgmental fashion
  7. Before you say something that can be interpreted in the long way; think it through. Or better yet, keep your mouth shut.

How should companies, leaders, managers, people/employees change this situation? What can all of us do to change this? Please share your thoughts with me on this hot topic.