Tina Lee, founder and CEO of MotherCoders, on the key issues that moms face working in tech and how companies can serve them better

Tina is the founder and CEO of MotherCoders, a non-profit that’s expanding the tech talent pool by helping women with kids gain the skills, knowledge, and connections they need to thrive in today’s digital economy. Tina started her career in the private sector, first as a management consultant and then a technical recruiter, before moving on to various roles in the government, philanthropy, and nonprofit.

In March, Tech Ladies hosted an #AskMeAnything with Tina. We discussed how moms can relaunch their careers, how companies can be more inclusive for working parents… and whether or not blockchain can help people (one of Tina’s personal favorite topics)!

Below are some of our favorite Q&As. Head over to the community for the full #AskMeAnything (you’ll have to join the group if you’re not currently a member).

Q: How can parents can really understand whether or not a company is family friendly? Having parental leave, pumping rooms, etc. is great — but it’s harder to understand whether or not the company has a culture that empathizes with parents and gives them the flexibility they need. What are the best questions to ask during the interview process to vet for this? What can remote teams do to be fully inclusive of moms working in tech?

Tina: On top of what you said, I personally would want to know the following:

• What resources do they have in place to support caregivers (e.g. parents, employees caring for family)? This could mean an ERG for parents, parental leave policies, flexibility around schedules, backup care, stipends to offset childcare costs, and reimbursements for childcare when you have to attend work-related outings after normal work hours.
• What percentage of their workforce are parents, and how many women in leadership positions are moms? I’d personally be worried if leadership mainly comprised of men with stay-at-home partners. It’s an empathy thing. Do they get what moms are up against? Are they allies actively working to change workplace culture to level the playing field? Are they normalizing parenthood by demonstrating their commitment to their kids by taking them to doctor appointments, WFH when kids are sick, attending parent-teacher conferences, etc.?

As for inclusivity on remote teams, that’s largely situational. A few ideas: not scheduling meetings after 5pm, not requiring employees to do off-sites without providing childcare support, normalizing parenting, and offering parental leave and incentivizing dads to take them, too.

Q: What questions should we be asking of our presidential candidates and other local, state, federal level candidates this election cycle around parenting/caregiving and work? Has anybody’s policy platform stolen your heart yet?

Tina: As far as I know, Elizabeth Warren’s the only candidate with a plan so far. Per Warren, childcare is a national economic issue and I can’t agree more. We need to bring back that national childcare system we had — and then demolished — during WWII when the men went off to war and the women had to work in the factories to support the effort. The system was destroyed when the war ended because the boys needed their jobs back and women were expected to go back into the home to do All. The. Things.

Q: What surprising factors matter for mothers who are relaunching a career that are not well understood (beyond things like daycare costs, desire to spend time with kids, restrictive ‘normal’ job hours).

A: Issues that moms in particular face: maternal wall, motherhood penalty, gender wage gap (childcare now costs more than rent and college tuition). Women must earn enough to cover childcare, otherwise it’s cheaper not to work. How crazy is that?!! Also, our society strips women of their professional identity once they become mothers, at MotherCoders we spend a lot of time helping them rebuild their confidence and network.

More resources:

• Because I’m a first-gen WOC, Rethinking Work-Life Balance for Women of Color is what resonates
• Parents are the Future: Reimagining Postsecondary Opportunities for Parent Learners
• Keep an eye out for 2 new books coming out later this year, one by my friend, Amy Henderson, founder of Tendlab, and another by Stacey Delo, co-founder of Après.
• Also check out Dr. Alexandra Sacks

Q: Any advice for how to prepare your career before kids to set up successful once you have them?

Tina: Here’s the thing: you never know what kinda pregnancy, birth, or kid you’re going to get. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a “normal” pregnancy and birth experience, in spite of being 37 and 39, respectively, when my girls were born.

Here’s what I wish I had more support for:

• Finding a childcare facility that was in my neighborhood, had space for an infant when I was ready to go back to work, and was within my price range. Back then Winnie and Wonderschool didn’t exist, and we’d decided to go with a group learning model rather than a nanny-share for various reasons, with cost being one of them.
• Paid parental leave.
• Coaching to help me navigate the transition into becoming a mother. Society strips you of all your awesome once you become a mom, and I ended up in therapy for 4+ years working through that.
• Having a community that can help with emergency childcare. (It’s just me and my hubs over here.)

Q: Finally, moving on to blockchain — one of your self-proclaimed obsessions! Do you think blockchain can help people? If not, why not? If so, what are some examples?

Tina: Like all tech, blockchain tech can help — or hurt. New use cases are emerging at a quick pace, particularly in finance, supply chain management, and media.

On the flip side, some tradeoffs we’ll have to deal with once mass adoption occurs include: algorithmic bias, data privacy, erosion of sovereignty of nation-states, surveillance, energy consumption (it takes lots of computing power), and the social disruption these will cause, along with worker displacement.

Check out https://101blockchains.com/ and follow Sheila Warren’s work at WEF.

Thanks to Tina for her time and wisdom! If you have an inspiring woman or non-binary person to nominate for an #AskMeAnything in Tech Ladies, shoot me an email: hannah[at]hiretechladies.com.

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