Diversity for the New Reality

Many are concerned about the lack of diversity in tech. Many have thrown out explanations for this issue that deny deeper systemic issues, such as, women don’t want to be in tech, or aren’t inclined to code, or even, aren’t up to the task. Despite this complex seeming web, sometimes a simple solution does exist. On this International Women’s Day, we, the ARVR Women team, are rolling out our plan:

Create workplaces that don’t suck.

That’s it. That’s our solution. We think it’s pretty simple. We also think that if everyone were on the same page in acknowledging lack of diversity as a grave problem, one that hits hard on our bottom line, we’d solve it fairly rapidly. This is not to imply that tech workplaces always suck for women or never suck for men. Nor are we saying our male colleagues aren’t often welcoming and supportive (especially in ARVR, we are so grateful for our special community). We are saying, however, that if we solve this persistent, industry-wide problem, for the majority of situations, as the data shows, we will succeed in revolutionizing the industry. We all want the largest market adoption as possible, but this isn’t possible without a diverse group of makers to appeal to diverse consumers.

How do we create non-sucky workplaces? Many well-documented problems exist, as well as many well-documented solutions.

Some of the problems:

• Lack of respect and acknowledgement (death by a thousand cuts)
• Inadequate accommodations for families
• Outright sexism
• Unequal pay for equal work
• Blatant sexual harassment
• And even, with the best of intentions, male-dominated teams may not be enjoyable to work with, all the time, day in, day out, without female camaraderie. It may create a dynamic that feels isolating. Especially in tech, we spend much of our time working. While those hours can feel enriching when our time is spent with like-minded friends, yes, male, but also female, large swaths of time spent without our sisters can sometimes feel like too great a sacrifice. When I propose tech as the right field for my math and engineering whiz of a teenage daughter, she looks skeptically at an industry that doesn’t seem inclusive of her circle of buddies, and therefore, despite intriguing work, perhaps not the right fit for her.

The solutions:

• Investments in female-led startups
• Focused efforts to hire women for your teams
• Gender parity training
• Raising unconscious bias awareness
• More flexible schedules
• Higher pay, or at a minimum, company-wide salary transparency
• Greater advancement selections of female employees
• Encouraging and assigning female leadership (including sending women to speak at expert panels, not about women in tech, but about the tech itself, how they are solving the big problems),
• Serious repercussions for boundary violations

So, entirely solvable. For people who’ve put men on the moon with a metal container and a calculator as a computer, this isn’t rocket science. Especially in the emerging ARVR industry, without a status quo yet to contend with, and in a prior incarnation, a history of extensive female leadership, now is the time to set an optimally successful course. Because of an overwhelmingly male presence in tech, the easiest path to “market disruption” is building diverse teams.

Our action plan for supporting our industry is threefold:

1. Educate women about our industry and create pipelines to either employment or entrepreneurship through our Meetups and our Multi-Reality Women’s Academy

2. Empower a committee to create turn-key ease for conference organizers to empanel female experts (again, not in “women in tech” panels, but sharing the “adult” table). Every industry panel should have equal representation of both men and women.

3. Enact culture change. We would like to establish a “Whole World Technology” program whereby companies pledge to follow certain established guidelines to become the “Whole World Technology” that effectively does what it says, create content and applications for the whole world.

I entered the world of ARVR because, from the moment I experienced the technology, I joined with many in enrapturement, with its potential to create a better world, its ability to generate cultural and financial wealth, and the sheer fun of it. Let’s invite everybody this time, and get this party started in the best possible way.

Join us, support us, celebrate us: 50/50 in 5 (gender parity in five years).

#createworkplacesthatdon’tsuck

#5050in5

#inviteeverybodytotheparty