Leading with Emily Chang, The New York Times Bestselling Author of "Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley"

Conversations @ Annenberg: Newsmakers, thought leaders and change agents on leadership and the issues they care most about 

It’s a depressing statistic that’s not budged over the last decade -- only 4% of the top 1,200 studio films were directed by women. So TIME’S UP and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative initiated the #4percentchallenge to increase the number of women directing major studio films. 

But last week, in a move that may lead to exponential progress for women, several studios and producers accepted the challenge to commit to announcing one female directed film or tv program in the next eighteen months. Add to that my conversation last week with Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos at MAKERS on the progress Netflix has made in creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce, and I am feeling optimistic about doors opening for women in the entertainment industry. 

I was reminded of my interview a few months ago with Emily Chang, the executive producer and anchor of Bloomberg Technology, a leading voice in business and tech journalism, and the author of the New York Times bestselling book, Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley. Our conversation focused on gender bias and the lack of representation for women in the male dominated tech industry. Her findings have strengthened a national conversation about sexism, inequality and chauvinism in the workforce and amplified the call for a major cultural shift. 

Below, snippets from our conversation offer Emily’s deeply researched and reported assessment of the lack of representation in the world of tech,  but they also shine a light on how we can move forward with inclusion for women in the workforce. 

On the state of the tech industry and defining the problem:

EMILY CHANG: You have half the population completely underrepresented in this industry. And so, women hold about 20% of jobs across the industry. They account for about 8% of venture capital investors, and women led companies get just 2% of venture capital funding in an industry that calls itself a meritocracy…the data is pretty clear. Silicon Valley has failed women and it's to me, it's just a huge tragedy, because I just wonder how the world might be different if women had had a seat at that table 30, 50 years ago. But I also think right now is a huge opportunity to change it, so we're not asking this question again in 30 years.

On the cultural context of the moment when this issue of inequality and workplace safety exploded and how the #metoo movement started in Silicon Valley:  

EC: Over time things started to happen, and Trump got elected and Susan Fowler happened, and you'd hear these dribs and drabs, and women sort of started becoming more courageous and there was a set of investors in Silicon Valley that were exposed after Susan Fowler's blog post in the summer of 2017. And it sort of started this domino effect. And this was three months before Harvey Weinstein. So I actually think the #MeToo movement started in Silicon Valley. Then Harvey Weinstein happened in October and it just exploded into national consciousness.

On the synergy between Silicon Valley and Hollywood, the role of inclusion and the data driving change in Hollywood: 

WILLOW BAY: I think that’s a significant shift in thinking and I also think we’ve seen that in the entertainment world, as well. Stacy Smith of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, is the best known researcher on lack of representation of women in front of and behind the camera in Hollywood, and she's also done this work and applied it to the music industry and film industry.

And she, too, has companies reaching out to her to say, “Hey, will you come talk to us? Will you help us get unstuck from this position of ‘We can't find the great women, where are they?’”And again, as you can tell, I'm an optimist, but I do think that willingness to engage on the issue is a positive sign.

EC: Absolutely, and it's a huge opportunity for me to just continue the conversation. All I wanted was to start a meaningful conversation, and now I feel like things are actually changing, and there could be no greater home for it.

Emily’s advice for diversifying Silicon Valley, the role of leadership and how to turn things around industry-wide: 

EC: First of all, it comes from the top. You have to have leadership committed to this and explicitly committed to this. I focus on a company called Slack. Where the CEO has made diversity a top priority and he's super vocal about it. And every time he tweets, "Hey, we're looking for diverse candidates." They get a spike [in applications].

On the effort required of employers to achieve workplace and pay equity:

EC: And so you're diversifying your recruiting teams. You're doing structured review and feedback systems. You are doing comprehensive pay reviews every single year. Salesforce did a pay review and they found this multimillion dollar gap, which they closed. The next year they did the review again and the gap had creeped back. So this work has to be done year after year after year. It's not easy. It takes intention, but it can be done.

On advocating for yourself and others:

EC: And then on an individual level, if you're not a CEO, you can advocate, we can all advocate for others. We can all speak up for others when we see someone getting interrupted, you can say, “Um, excuse me, I want to hear what ... can you let her finish speaking?”or when you see someone who's not getting an opportunity, like, “Let's give so and so a shot.”And that's something that every single person in this room can do, and I'm really excited that even young people are ready and raring to go, and seem to understand the issues better than maybe we do.