Celebrating International Women’s Day & Women in Tech at SXSW

On International Women’s Day and the first day of the FQ Lounge, Home of Equality at SXSW, we’re working to balance the scales — across industries and around the world. The festival brings together creative and tech professionals, and it’s clear that the scales need to be balanced in tech.

·     Less than one in 20 girls considers a career in STEM, compared to 1 in 5 boys, says OECD.

·     The global gender gap in STEM stands at 47%, according to the World Economic Forum.

·     Just 5% of leadership positions in the technology sector are held by women, reports PwC.

It would pay off for tech companies to have a workforce that better reflects and understands half the world’s population, since women are an economic force: Women influence more than 85% of consumer purchases, accounting for $4.3 trillion in spending, according to The Atlantic.

The growth of women in tech isn’t moving fast enough. We have to stop admiring the problem and start activating solutions for change. Change won’t just happen, we have to make it happen. Here are some ideas on how to change this:

Don’t just diversify your talent pool, diversify your hiring team, too. People tend to hire people who they feel comfortable with—which is usually people who think and act like them. If your hiring team is mostly white men—and white men make up about 83% of executive positions in tech—you’re less likely to hire truly diverse teams. And diversity isn’t just about gender or race, it’s also about diversity of mindset. Research shows that diverse teams who feel safe using their voice are more innovative than non-diverse teams.

Rather than focusing only on attracting more women and minorities in tech in general or at the entry level, also focus on attracting more diversity in leadership, where there is power to make hiring decisions in order to really diversify the workforce.

Create cultures of belonging. Diversity is an action, inclusivity is cultural, and belonging is a feeling. If we truly want to not only attract, but to also retain more diversity in tech (an industry where many women leave tech mid-career and re-entry can be a challenge) then we have to create cultures where all people feel like they belong, regardless of gender, race, age or sexual orientation.

Create safe spaces for employees to have open and honest conversations; reward workers who show empathy and caring, such as by calling it out in meetings or reviews; create more opportunities at work that allow employees to get to know each other outside of their job descriptions; have “interruption bells” to make people aware when they’re interrupting others in meetings, and amplify each other’s voices so everyone is being heard.

Have accountability for change. Transformation will happen when we have accountability for change. Putting the right metrics and policies in place—and holding leaders accountable for meeting D&I goals just like any other business goal—is how we will make progress. Some ways to change the bro culture in tech is by implementing equal parental leave policies to help eliminate the “motherhood penalty,” creating targets for the number of women in leadership positions, and closing the wage gap.

We’ll be featuring some amazing females in tech in the FQ Lounge @ SXSW, including our 13-year-old scientist Gitanjali Rao. You can find the full agenda here, and stay tuned for more updates.

Let’s #BettertheBalance. Together, we can make International Women’s Day not just one day, but every day.