How we introduced Women in Tech discussions in a male team
And got everyone excited about it
Two months ago we started the Women in Tech Theme at Label A. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but we knew it was necessary. Our team at that time consisted of 61 men and 8 women. And we were not alone in that: globally the percentage of women in tech companies is 15% opposed to 85% men. But the question was: how do you get people excited about a topic that is so sensitive? How do you get people invested in a topic that the majority probably never even considered an issue prior to this theme? Well, we managed to do it, and we will tell you how.
We launched the theme to create awareness around the (much broader) topic of ‘diversity in tech’, which also include sexual orientation, religious beliefs and ethnicity. This goes further than just making sure that we have a diverse team. It is about making sure that EVERYONE — regardless of gender, sexual orientation or ethnicity — can be themselves and feels safe, equal and respected. So our Women in Tech theme focused not only on ‘getting more women into tech and encouraging diversity’, but also ‘making the workplace female-friendly’, so that the women that DO choose to be in tech are happy to be there.
We were really curious and — let’s be honest — a little bit scared with how the team would react to a sensitive topic like this. Especially considering the scepticism topics like this often receive. In order to prevent this, we knew we had to be smart about it.
Ok, so let’s do this!
To get everyone’s full attention we introduced the theme and topic in a fresh environment, a place that was not our office. And with six beamers and a catwalk we definitely managed to get everyone’s attention. Yes, creating awareness and catwalking is possible!
Almost the entire Label A & Birdy teams were present: 54 people in total. 87% were men, so the perfect example to justify this theme with!
In order to make sure everyone kept an open mind, and to prevent misunderstanding and confusion we carefully selected the phases of the introduction event. We decided to start with some positive notes before we broke down the (harsh) reality.
1. Looking at ourselves: on track with becoming more diverse
We started with the good news: our team was more diverse than the average of the Netherlands! Our team is made up out of 10 different ethnicities and 4 religious beliefs. Quite cool! Surprisingly we were also above the Dutch average on terms of gender diversity: 13% is female within Label A (next month it will already be 14.7%!🎉🙋) vs. the 11% of the national average. We knew that we had a lot of work to do, but this was a good start!
2. Our influencers are already talking about it
We knew that a good strategy for keeping the motivation and interest high was showing how this is a worldwide discussion that is also taking place in spaces that we admire. It is happening at Apple with the participation of Alicia Carr — founder of Women who Code — in the Apple WWDC16 promotional video; or Justin Trudeau — Prime minister of Canada — talking about the 50–50 gender cabinet for the Government of Canada. I can list much more examples, but then this article would be too long. See for yourself and check out the hashtag #WomenInTech and be amazed by how many Women In Tech events are happening globally right now.
3. Facts and figures
After some cool and positive vibes, it is necessary to show the numbers that can embarrass the entire tech world. Females are highly underrepresented during the development of digital products. An average of only 15% of the tech teams worldwide are female even though 50% of the smartphone users is female! Basically, finding a female on a tech team is almost more difficult than finding Waldo…
4. Improving together: Gamification for self-criticism
Now that we are more in context: how can we improve as a team? How can we become allies for diversity? How do I know if I’m a good ally for diversity? To try to answer these questions we did a quick and easy activity based on the bingo card made by Concerned Feminists for the Grace Hopper Celebration 2014. Basically, they created a bingo card with fifteen statements and participants are asked to check the boxes with statements they feel apply to them.
How can we improve as a team? How can we become allies for diversity? How do I know if I’m a good ally for diversity?
We loved this idea so we created our own version of the bingo card and used statements about diversity. A few examples: ‘I prevent biased feedback and jokes’, ‘I help minorities to integrate better in the team’, ‘I speak up when I see discrimination or exclusion’ and so on. The game was an awesome way for the group to feel comfortable with self-criticism. But more importantly, it really laid out all the different ways they could improve themselves. It made them think about things they might have never thought about before.
And the results were amazing! So we decided to play the game again at the end of the Women in Tech theme, two months later, to see if there were any improvements.
Guess what: turns out we are 14.6% better allies for diversity since the start of the theme!
5. Being a minority: Remember your first week at the office?
Our second group activity focused on awareness as well. We asked everyone on the team two simple questions:
- Which were the things that made you feel more comfortable and more included?
- Which were the things that made you feel less comfortable and less included?
What’s a better way to become aware of the feeling of being a minority than remembering a time where you were part of one. Everybody has experienced that feeling at least once in their life: When you started a new job, when you went to a new school, when you joined a new water polo team… That moment of being the new one. You probably had to put in some extra effort in the beginning to fit in the crew. Is that right? Probably for most of the people it is, and that’s the feeling that we wanted to discuss and think about to conclude the journey.
We found that a positive approach in a fresh environment, followed by some raw figures and facts and some cool awareness activities were a great way to create a positive attitude towards a topic like this. We noticed that this day really got everyone buzzing about the theme, even the ones that expressed doubts or were sceptic at first. And that was the goal, to create a feeling of togetherness, to make people understand the need for this theme and to make everyone wanting to be a part of it. So in conclusion, the awareness presentation was a big success. The organisation team only got positive messages from the rest of the team. Everybody received the theme with open arms and was ready to be part of this great movement. And this was only the start of an incredible moment. Soon we would have great discussions in our office about Women & Diversity in Tech with Boris VvZ, CEO and Founder of The Next Web. But we will tell you more about that in the next article!
Stay tuned!
