LGBTQ+ women: The hardship of unseen diversity

This is Working Together, a weekly series on the changing face of U.S. business. Have ideas about what we should discuss next week? Let me know in the comments using #WorkingTogether or email me at [email protected]. 

When Leanne Pittsford started her career advocating for the rights of the gay community, she immediately noticed a dynamic: For every gay woman she met working to advance the cause, there were 10 gay men doing the same. She had a hard time finding community, and she felt alone most days. 

That’s why she founded Lesbians Who Tech, a 50,000-person community of LGBTQ, non-binary, trans, and gender-nonconforming women working in the tech industry. 

“I grew up not seeing anyone that looked like me,” Pittsford told me in an interview earlier this year. “People just put us [LGBTQ women] into the LGBTQ umbrella…. You can’t put everything into one diversity blanket. I think, finally, people are understanding that it’s more complex than that.” 

Pittsford’s experience is common across Corporate America, according to a study out this week by McKinsey. At every stage of the management pipeline, LGBTQ+ women are underrepresented. And because there are so few on most teams, LGBTQ+ women often feel isolated, and they believe their identity has negatively affected their career. 

LGBTQ+ women are more than twice as likely as straight women to feel as though they cannot talk about themselves or their life outside work. They are also more likely to report that their gender has played a role in missing out on a raise, promotion, or a chance to get ahead. 

Transgender people, whether straight or LGBQ+, are more likely to view their gender or orientation as a barrier to future advancement. And even while facing these significant challenges, LGBTQ+ women are just as likely as their straight peers to aspire to be a top executive within their firm. 

In the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision to protect gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from employment discrimination based on sex, McKinsey’s report shows there is still a lot of work to be done. Diverse leadership within an organization is highly correlated to LGBTQ+ women feeling more supported at work. Formal professional-advancement opportunities — like sponsorship programs — also have a big impact on the experiences of “onlys” at work. 

That said, it’s important companies consider initiatives that go beyond offering these resources, said founder and CEO of Rich Talent Group Jana Rich. Throughout her career, the executive recruiter said she has heard from countless LGBTQ+ women who feel like they cannot talk about their personal lives at work. That feeling of restriction can have a big impact on a person’s career. 

Developing workplace cultures that allow for diverse talent — particularly when that form of diversity is not visible — will be key to improving LGBTQ+ women’s experience at work. 

“I feel like ‘bring your whole self to work’ sounds touchy feely and easy,” Rich said. “But for a lot of people, it is not easy and there are a lot of reasons why it isn’t easy.”

Rich remembers in 2002 when she was invited to a partners retreat for married couples by the CEO of the executive recruiting firm she was working at. Gay marriage was not legal at the time, but she assumed she could bring her committed partner of five years. 

She was wrong. They told her the retreat was for married couples only. 

“I felt like I was sucker punched,” she said. 

To truly make a meaningful change, Rich says companies must begin at the beginning. “A lot of the work needs to happen before a person is hired. It starts with the recruiting process…. It’s really about talking to people through the interview process on where the company stands on diversities both seen and unseen.” 

And while Corporate America works to improve its discrimination issues from within, Pittsford and others are confident that the next generation of workers will resolve these issues once they have the power to do so. 

“Young people just see the world differently,” said Pittsford. “They can really look at stuff through multiple lenses and they don’t often put people in boxes. I think that’s really going to change things for the younger generation.” 

Rich echoes that sentiment, but she is concerned as well: “When you look at people in their 20s, the LGBTQ+ thing is not a big deal. But this is important education because we are much more conscious of gender and racial discrimination than the LGBTQ+ issue, where the discrimination is still very real and not paid enough attention to.” 

What’s Working

It’s time to stop asking. After hearing from countless people on what they can do to advance racial equity, WIE Network Founder and CEO Dee Poku put together a resource for allies who want to take action. “Black women cannot and should not have to do this alone…. It shouldn’t be on us to dismantle a system we didn’t create. But I believe allyship must always be actionable.” [LinkedIn]

‘Wouldn’t be taken seriously.’ Tracy Young, the co-founder and CEO of PlanGrid, spent a majority of her career trying to hide the fact that she was a “female founder.” That changed when she got pregnant, as she explains in an open and honest blog post. “The women's experience can be really hard…. To top it all off, I felt I had to be a version of what I thought a good male CEO was, so that I wouldn’t be judged or treated differently.” [LinkedIn]

Pivoting in a pandemic. A change of business plan is very much in the life blood of any successful startup founder. But what if you have to pivot not just for profit, but for public safety amid a global pandemic? I caught up with Everlywell Founder and CEO Julia Cheek to hear how she shifted resources in real time to bring an in-home COVID-19 testing kit to market. You can check out the conversation above. 

Who’s Pushing Us Forward

What topics should we discuss next week as a Working Together community? Let me know in the comments below using #WorkingTogether