How to Achieve Your International Womxn’s Day Commitments Throughout the Year
She’s technically challenging
The theme of 2021’s IWD is Choose to Challenge. What does choosing to challenge mean for the Future of Female Leadership in Tech?
Melissa Skowron a tech-sector-based Project Manager who is passionate about leading organizational change initiatives. She explores the statement “choose to challenge,” while reflecting on her own journey through the world of technology. Skowron, who is also an accomplished professional chef, artist and new momma, shares her journey with the Chic Geek community and we find that while good intentions to create diversity don’t always pan out, that doesn’t mean throwing in the towel.We need to choose change daily, not just once a year.
By Melissa Skowron
For the last few years, I’ve had the pleasure of working for technology companies in Calgary, Canada. I love the industry because there seems to be a genuine interest in investing in new ways to engage employees, with a specific push to promote diversity and inclusion in hiring practices. Coming from a career in male-dominated industries, it was great to be at the center of discussions about inclusion where people speak freely and passionately about improving female leadership representation as if it was an attainable goal. A big part of the plan for tech companies to improve leadership representation was to promote, plan and/or host events focused on womxn in tech.
If you’re a womxn in techology, you’ve probably been to a few networking events and conferences aimed at empowering womxn and supporting them in their careers and path to leadership. These events usually have panels or keynote sessions where a few noted womxn in leadership speak on their journey to leadership and offer advice for the next generation of womxn.
The Narrow Narratives of Current womxn in Leadership
After attending dozens of these types of events, I started to notice a pattern in the kinds of narratives that were being shared. Female leaders recalled their experiences of creating the roles that lead to their current position; stories of getting into scrappy start-ups at the beginning stages of growth, or promotions into critical positions due to a “right place/right time” brand of what some unfairly write-off as “luck.”The audience for these panels were packed with womxn who are at the start of their careers or years into their career and looking for strategic advice on how to achieve the next crucial step towards a leadership role, as well as the salary that comes along with it.
I remember leaving these talks feeling like I missed something, but I couldn’t articulate what it was. At the end of the day, there was usually a casual cocktail networking hour where I participated in the cathartic experience of empathetic candour:
“Ugh, same!” was the usually sentiment around the table when chatting with other womxn in tech facing similar challenges to forging a path to growth and leadership in multiple companies throughout the city.
Even though we all clapped and cheered at the end of each panel, thanking these high-ranking female leaders for their time, the chasm between the audience and the stage seemed to grow. The narratives that were shared didn’t acknowledge the barriers that womxn in tech face today. Instead, the panel was sharing a spectrum of how their career paths were the exception, without acknowledging the rule that plagues most womxn in tech today.
“The narratives that were shared didn’t acknowledge the barriers that womxn in tech face today. Instead, the panel was sharing a spectrum of how their career paths were the exception, without acknowledging the rule that plagues most womxn in tech today. “
That rule is, the systematic sexism that directly contributes to the low representation of womxn (especially womxn of color), in leadership positions in tech.
Chic Geek knows that Womxn are underrepresented in technology, holding only 25% of computing roles - something that hasn’t changed in the past ten years.
And according to CIO digital magazine piece from 2021, compared to overall private industry employment, the high-tech sector employs a larger share of whites (63.5% to 68.5%), Asian Americans (5.8% to 14%) and men (52% to 64%), and a smaller share of African Americans (14.4% to 7.4%), Hispanics (13.9% to 8%) and womxn (48% to 36%), according to data from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
So, why aren’t we talking about this in spaces that are supposedly carved out for this type of honest dialogue? One reason could be that these events and conferences are either hosted, sponsored (or both!) by companies that are looking to boost their public profile instead of facilitating a real dialog about the major role these companies play in blocking womxn’s path to leadership.
How can men show up to support Womxn?
Womxn Are Forced to Climb the Corporate Ladder While Carrying the Emotional Baggage and Exhaustion of not only Industry Barriers, but quite frankly, their male counterparts.
I once helped organize a International womxn’s Day panel at a tech company where one of the panelists was a cis-gendered, white, male leader of the company. After the panel concluded, there was a debrief meeting with the organizers of the panel. The organizers received overwhelming feedback from the attendees that this male leader shouldn’t have been on the panel, but instead should have used his position of privilege within the company to nominate a womxn from his team to take his place, and promote attendance to the panel widely across the company. One organizer responded that this feedback had already reached the male leader and he said he felt “really bad” about participating in the panel considering this feedback.
I immediately thought about all the stories I’d listened to from my female colleagues over the years about instances where they received feedback that made them feel “really bad.” One womxn expressed frustration at the announcement of a male colleague being awarded a manager position over her, though she had previous management experience that the male colleague lacked. When she asked her manager why she didn’t receive the promotion, she was told that she “wasn’t ready” for any leadership roles and wouldn’t be up for any promotions in the near future. When asked if there were specific skills she needed to work on to change her readiness for a promotion, her manager replied that they just didn’t “feel” like she was ready and couldn’t give any specific feedback to qualify a corrective path. Another womxn shared her exhaustion over juggling her responsibilities as a new mom and caring for an elderly parent, while being told by her single, male leader that she needed to be putting more hours in at the office in order to be successful in her position.
It seems that in this discussion that revolves around a theme of ‘hurt feelings’, members of leadership are given the space to express their emotions while womxn trying to climb the corporate ladder deal with the emotional fallout of slamming against barriers as well as lost opportunities for advancement, bigger paychecks, and confidence in their dedication to their current position.
“When asked if there were specific skills she needed to work on to change her readiness for a promotion, her manager replied that they just didn’t ‘feel’ like she was ready and couldn’t give any specific feedback to qualify a corrective path.”
Where do we go from here?
The International womxn’s Day 2021 campaign theme is #ChoosetoChallenge, and I believe this theme couldn’t be timelier. Not only do we need to point out failures in inclusion in our day to day interactions but push leaders and corporations to do the work of challenging themselves to be better at delivering measurable results.
It’s time to start pushing for actions and commitments from corporations to formally acknowledge the barriers that womxn face on the path to leadership, and how that corporation plans to support the advancement of female employees. Companies also need to provide safe spaces to listen to womxn’s experiences of discrimination and gender bias. In response, companies should take accountability for the part they play in the failure to create a culture where womxn do have equal opportunity for advancement.
We need to make the call for authentic, honest conversations about the organizations and people we work with at conferences and networking events. So much time is spent celebrating the womxn who have managed to cross the finish line into leadership without acknowledging the common barriers womxn in tech currently face in their careers. The current message from female leaders is, ‘I did it, and so can you!’ without the acknowledgement that most womxn can’t follow the same path in our current landscape.
We need to press for change in a professional culture where it seems like the only womxn who are getting invited to a seat at the table are those who are willing to smile, make polite conversation and never ever criticize their gracious hosts.
HOW CAN WE MAKE CHANGE
PUSH for actions and commitments from corporations to formally acknowledge the barriers that womxn face on the path to leadership in tech
CALL all for have authentic, honest conversations about the organizations and people we work with at conferences and networking events.
PRESS for change in a professional culture where it seems like the only womxn who are getting invited to a seat at the table are those who are willing to smile, make polite conversation and never ever criticize their gracious hosts.
If you're a woman in tech, you've probably experienced many of the encounters that Melissa has described, and noticed that there aren't many women in senior roles.
While most companies want to hire and promote more women into leadership positions, it's not always clear how to do this effectively or what the best practices are for getting ahead in your career as a female engineer or technical leader.
Chic Geek Career Pathing is an online conversation with someone who has been through similar challenges on their own journey to success and can help you identify opportunities for advancement based on their experience. Your Career Guide will discuss your interests, goals, current situation and potential next steps so that you can confidently choose the path forward that works best for YOU!
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