Women In Tech: The Three Minute Explanation

I ran into Adelaida on the train yesterday morning, on my way out to Amherst for an OpenHatch event. We struck up a conversation which eventually turned to the book she was reading, Unlocking the Clubhouse. This made me think of Top Secret Rosies, a documentary about women computers during WWII which I bought on a whim recently and which I’m hoping to show soon at BoCoup Loft.

We were talking about the documentary when a man sitting next to Adelaida interrupted us. Sorry for eavesdropping, he said, but he was curious - his son had recently gotten accepted into MIT, but he couldn’t get his daughter interested in computer science. How could he encourage her?

The only response that seemed reasonable was: well, maybe your daughter’s just not into computing.

He then asked a much more answerable question. He ran a software startup, and he’d just hired his second female engineer. How could he make his company more welcoming to women?

Afterwards, Adelaida complimented my response. She asked if she could use it when asked similar questions, to which I said, of course.

So. In case anyone else finds it useful, here is how I answer the “Women In Tech” question - Three Minutes Before The Next Stop Edition.

Are you familiar with the concept of the leaky pipeline?

The answer is almost always no, so I explain:

The leaky pipeline is a way of viewing the path that people take to success in their field. The idea is that women experience many ‘leaks’ along the way, and each leak decreases the amount of women who ultimately succeed. These leaks happen everywhere, and so there’s no one solution - instead, there’s a lot of individual patches to be made.

What I like about the leaky pipeline metaphor is that it allows me to pick and choose a few things to talk about without suggesting that I’m providing a comprehensive answer. Also, I think it’s pretty accurate, for a metaphor.

Because this man was the head of a startup, I focused on the leaks he could most directly impact.

Here are some things you can think about.

Make sure your company has a clear anti-harassment/anti-discrimination policy. Large companies like Microsoft and Google tend to have decent policies in place, but for a lot of start ups it’s not something they think about or get around to. But it’s important. You might think, it’s a small office, and I’m a good guy - if something happens, I’ll handle it well. But women don’t know that. Making an official policy signals that this is something you care about and are willing to devote time and energy towards. And if something does happen, you’ll have a plan for how to handle it.

Second - make sure your workers are paid what they deserve. Generally, women are paid less than men for doing the same work, and while some studies show less of a gap in technology fields (at least, when you control for education and experience), others still find sharp disparities in particular sub-fields.

Also, make sure you respect all of your employees’ work/life balance. Because women on average spend twice as much time doing housework and twice as much time doing childcare as men, women have less ability to sacrifice their weekends and evenings for your company. Creating a company culture with constant pressure to work hurts everyone - but especially women.

Obviously I wasn’t able to cite individual studies - my ability to speak on the fly isn’t that good! - but that’s the gist of it.