Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges: Empowering Women in Tech
I wanted to discuss a topic that’s both important and exciting: working on the Women in Technology (WIT) problem at a startup. Women are underrepresented in tech — the industry standard is 26% of women in engineering roles, but that statistic plummets as seniority rises, with only 10% of women in leadership positions. Jetty Product & Engineering also face this problem but is ahead of the curve — our leadership team is 33% female and our broader team is around 30%. Our executive team is also rather well-balanced, which is also atypical for a startup, with 43% of that team made up of individuals who identify as female. However, there is always room for improvement, and we are putting our time and effort into trying to address some of the challenges we face. Here are a few of the things we are doing.
Focusing on Diversity Candidates
DEI seems to be the topic du jour, but diversity isn’t just a buzzword. It’s about bringing in fresh perspectives, ideas, and experiences that will help Jetty grow and succeed in new and exciting ways. So, what are we doing about it? First and foremost, wherever possible, we’re starting our hiring processes early, allowing us to seek out more diverse candidates. We also leverage our extended networks to get referrals. We have an excellent recruiter who isn’t afraid to slide into DMs and she’s been instrumental in our success with not just recruiting candidates, but closing them post-offer. We also make it a priority to ensure that our interview panels include women to show that we value gender diversity; women who see other women in the organization, and in positions of leadership are more likely to see themselves in that organization.
Monthly Chats
A new addition to our playbook is a monthly session where we can chat about what’s working like a charm and what’s… not so much. It’s a safe space to brainstorm, laugh, and learn from each other. We have just scheduled these and have only had one session so far, so there are no learnings yet to share. But we’re off to a great start — the conversation was open and honest, and everyone is excited about the community we’re creating. I’m hopeful that this will create more cross-collaboration and provide support and mentorship, especially to the more junior members of our team.
Mentoring Program
One thing I’m especially passionate about is mentoring. I’ve been fortunate in my career to have strong women mentors that I can rely on to help me grow both personally and professionally. And I’ve also been on the other side — mentoring younger product professionals and helping them navigate their careers. When I first joined Jetty, a junior PM was in the process of leaving the org for a new opportunity. However, we’ve kept in touch over the past 2.5 years and built an extremely rewarding mentoring relationship. I’ve helped her with career decisions, provided a safe space to bounce ideas and vent, when needed, and helped her grow in her career. Jetty doesn’t have an official mentorship program, but the team highlighted this gap and requested that we do something about it. We are in the process of kicking off a WIT mentoring program to provide this guidance to others in the organization. I strongly believe that this program, coupled with the monthly chats outlined above, will be hugely beneficial to the overall growth and development of women in our organization.
Expanding outside Product & Engineering
A really interesting learning out of all of this is how many women at Jetty are in technical roles that aren’t part of the Product & Engineering organization. We’ve recently expanded our group to include tech geniuses in all sorts of roles — data science, financial products, salesforce — or any other cool tech-focused gig. This also will help us with diversity of thought — people in different areas of the organization likely have taken a different path than those of us in more typical P&E roles. By including them in our conversations, we are all able to learn more and innovate more, providing us with a competitive edge.
So, there you have it — our journey of addressing the WIT challenges at Jetty. We’re not just talking the talk; we’re trying to walk the walk toward a more inclusive and gender-balanced workplace. It’s a work in progress, and we have lots of opportunities for improvement, but I’m excited to be part of a leadership team that values diversity and is committed to making a change. If you’re looking for a change of your own, come check us out!
