Moving away from work, I wanted to mention a recent keynote on a topic I’m very passionate about. After I spoke on the mainstage at Retail Week Tech conference, I was invited to do an evening talk about women in tech and how we can encourage more diversity in the workplace.
Diversity is an important value to both myself and where I work – but I know that a lot of workplaces can claim this, without actually practicing what they preach. I’ve attended a lot of talks which outline the challenge that I’m only very aware of myself – but no tangible actions on what to do. So I used the talk to outlined some physical examples of what we, women, allies, employers, can do to help.
No slides or pictures but here’s a couple of extracts from the keynote!
What does more women in tech mean?
When we say we need more women in tech, better representation, better pay – what do we expect to see here? Is it a company that has 50% women, 50% men, and 50% women in management, being paid exactly the same, regardless of anything else?
For me, not really. I’m not here to promote hiring equality for the sake of numbers and PR. As a young, minority ethnic female, I can probably tick a lot of boxes for any company but I know that many of us in this room deserve it already on our own merits. For me, it’s more about fairness and equality. Fair opportunity regardless of gender or background, fair pay, fair representation and a fair platform to have opinions heard.
Sounds good right – but where do we start?
Why not at the beginning? Given that Depop is popular with mostly 14-25 year olds, we have an additional opportunity and responsibility to get involved from an early age. School – why aren’t girls pursuing STEM subjects? To be fair, when I was at school, I hated Maths (ironic for an accountant) and although I was okay at Science, I didn’t realise how it could be applied to a ‘real’ job other than ‘be a scientist or a doctor’. Studies support this, showing that there are a lack of role models, as well as a general misconception of what STEM careers look like in the real world.
To help combat this, Depop works with a social integration charity called The Challenge that runs an apprenticeship programme for school leavers. We took on a school leaver to sit within our Fraud team, a career she never knew existed. We also hold regular internships and rotations within our Tech team, so that people can get to learn about the opportunities available to them, as well as inviting users to our offices to see behind the screen of how a tech company works.
When it comes to applying for jobs….
A job description can mean different things to a man or woman. I read that men apply for jobs where they can do some of the description, women apply for jobs that they know they can do most or all of the description. Without realising it, we all use language that is subtly gender-coded and it shows up in job descriptions as well. Research shows that women are put off from applying for jobs that are advertised with masculine-coded language. Words like ‘lead’, ‘confident’, ‘active’ and ‘competitive’ compared to words like ‘responsible’, ‘dependable’, ‘committed’.
In a move to hire more women at Depop – we run our job specs through software that remove or highlight specific words that are gender biased. We also make sure we have a gender balanced hiring committee. I’ll be honest, it all sounds a bit PC – tick boxy – but it’s worked for us. Women in the Tech team have grow 400%. Our workforce comes from 16 different countries and 48% of them are women.
However, the biggest impact that any company can have – is probably to have more women in the first place. Women are better at hiring women. Our CEO, Maria Raga, is a woman. After she became CEO, not only did our management team grow from 3 to 6 people, as she promoted more people internally. It went from being 1 in 3 female to 4 in 6 female. It is definitely a culture that needs to be dictated from the top, which means – unfortunately, its seems a bit of a chicken egg scenario. I read that 70 percent of US tech startups- have absolutely no women on their boards or in their exec team. So even if we get more girls interested in tech, and we get more women coming into the industry – that’s only the beginning. It’s highly likely that they may be faced with the same challenges that we are now.
We know that one woman here, equals more woman here. So how do we get here in the first place?
When it comes to more Women in Tech, I think the underlying question to be answered is actually: How do I prove my value in the business? How do I get paid what I deserve? How do I frame my difference as a strength? How do I get my voice heard whilst still coming across as a team player?
A FRAMEWORK FOR PERSONAL CHANGE
- Reframing your strengths.
If I asked you in this room what are your strengths, maybe the majority would be ‘powerful leader’, ‘high performance’, ‘confident’, ‘strong management’, ‘direct communication’
I’m going to use a dramatic example but what if someone said “high pain threshold” – as females are alleged to have. At first, we’d look at them like they’re mad. What are you doing in YOUR workplace? But actually – a high pain threshold means that women are able to tolerate a lot more, whether it’s high pressure, high stress, high levels of bullshit – if you can handle all of that with a level of diplomacy and calm – that’s a real strength that adds value.
Intuition, empathy, actual emotional intelligence – soft skills commonly attributed as a female trait- mean caring about your colleagues. This can result in more engaged teams, you can read different agendas and you get the best out of anyone you work with.
But the point is – it’s very easy to try and live up to traditional male strengths. It’s also very easy to not do these well. I tried to be assertive once, I came across as a giant asshole. The goal is to be proud of your strengths, instead of trying to be something you’re not.
2. Get rid of this Fear of failure
We all want to succeed, we all want to be seen as being great at our job – sometimes the fear of not doing a good job can hinder us. It can be anything from missing an opportunity because of some unknown risk that we’re not sure about, or even just saying ‘yes, no problem’ to everything to prove that you have your shit together.
I’ve learnt that saying no to stuff can be a good thing. I hate doing it, I want to be a superhero but the moment I forgave myself for being an ordinary human being, the better I did and the better I felt. I do not doubt that you’re all absolutely kick ass, way above average at your jobs but you still are a human being, with a fixed number of hours in a day. Cut yourself some slack. It’s okay.
3. Constant Feedback
Deep sea free divers time themselves for every dive, and they’re always trying to beat it. Without constant feedback, we cannot improve. I used to hate it, still kind of hate it but know I should really appreciate it.
But there are other benefits to this when it comes to bringing women up in the workplace. Firstly – it’s what young people call ‘collecting receipts’. If you do feel like you’re being unfairly held back or not given a fair opportunities – documentation of your feedback is the first step to identifying this. It’s also written guidance of what you need to achieve to reach the next level. Go into your feedback session with a game plan – don’t just tack it onto the end of a regular 1:1.
So reframing your strengths, knowing your worth – we need to draw our lines and not accepting anything less. Because that’s what it’s all about – making sure that everyone knows and believes the value of a women in tech – and that all starts with us.