FIRST THOUGHT: Inclusion and Diversity
No matter what obstacle you’re facing, it can be a relief to know you’re not alone. The only way to find out you aren’t the only one facing a challenge is to hear others speak up about it. It can be such a relief to hear. But it’s so scary to be that person who voices her experiences.
Today, confide in someone. Let her know about a challenge or a disappointment you’ve experienced. You never know. She might be going through the same thing.
WOMEN IN NUMBERS: 625 Out of 716
Fortune Magazine surveyed 716 women in the tech industry in 2014, and 625 of those surveyed said after leaving the industry, they don’t plan to return. Only 3 percent said they would come back to tech. Why is that? It isn’t because of the work; the surveyed women said they loved learning about STEM and they loved the work they did, like coding and software development.
You can blame their resistance to return to the tech industry on unfriendly workplace culture. In fact, 192 of the women surveyed said the reason they left was because the environment was discriminatory.
Sounds like the tech industry still has some growing to do when it comes to inclusion and diversity.
WOMAN TO WATCH: Nathalie Miller, Co-founder of Doxa, Director of Partner Programs at CODE2040
Nathalie Miller has never been one to sit still in life. After graduating from Harvard, she moved to Vietnam, where she started a microfinance nonprofit that provided financial services and products to ethnic minority women. Later, after returning to the States, she was drawn to the tech industry, and landed a job at Instacart, the grocery-delivery startup that’s now worth $2 billion.
It’s no secret that the tech industry can be unfriendly to women. At one point, a new employee told Miller that he ranked the “hottest” women in the company and she was number one. I mean, how do you even respond to that? Refusing to put up with that kind of treatment, she reported the employee, and he was deservedly fired the next day.
After experiencing the highs and lows of the tech industry, Miller decided to walk away from that position and create a startup of her own. She co-founded a company called Doxa with the goal of making the workplace a friendlier environment for women. Doxa uses multi-dimensional data analysis to show what it’s really like to work at a specific company. Some of the insights include the average age, average employee tenure, happiness level, amount of busy work and the amount of time devoted to meetings per week. Doxa users can also find important information about maternity and paternity leave at particular companies, as well as info about pay gaps and raises for men versus women.
Six months into development, Miller was hit by a surprise: She was pregnant. During this time, she was trying to secure funding for her business, a task that was met with difficulty. She was also doing consulting work with CODE2040, a nonprofit that matches African-American and Latino software engineers with tech companies. CODE2040 offered Miller a full-time position as director of partner programs, which she gladly accepted.
She was able to work for a cause she believed in while also growing Doxa. After giving birth to her daughter on Christmas Day, Miller now feels confident she is doing what she was called to do in life.
QUITE THE QUOTE
I love this quote by actress Tracee Ellis Ross:
“I was given the strength to be a woman who has a voice who speaks up for herself.”
That’s all for now. Be sure to share this so more women can have a voice! Thanks for getting ready with us.
To learn more about our conversation, check us out at OnTheDotWoman.com and talk to us @OnTheDotWoman on Twitter and Instagram. We’d love to hear your voice.