Category: WISE
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After the Toxicity the Toxicity Remains
Every so often, the conversation about leaving tech resurfaces, and things I wrote in ~2014 get referenced. I wrote a lot about leaving tech around then. I thought a lot about leaving in tech in 2014. And 2013. And in 2015, I thought a lot about what it had meant to be willing to leave,…
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On Improving Diversity in Hiring
Caveat: Diversity is more than gender. I’ve used gender in some of these examples because I have enough anecdotal data to support these theories wrt to gender but I don’t want to extrapolate beyond that. In general my policy is to test and measure women because we can actually have data for that, but then…
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On Language
Credit: Pixabay / Alexas_Fotos I’ve encountered a lot of words that I would sooner not, working in tech. I have found the word whore in a design document, had colleagues who refer to women as “bitches”. I’ve been called – as most women have – abrasive, or more bluntly, a “c***”. I have been told,…
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But Unfortunately, As You Know, People
We’ve been relatively public with Technically Speaking about our commitment to inclusivity. We only include conferences with a Code of Conduct, and we heavily weight whether travel costs are covered in our consideration. There is something we haven’t talked about (although I touched on it a little in this podcast). A Code of Conduct is…
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Sponsorship Can Start Small
My friend Duretti asked for tips on being a mentor, and here was mine: figure out how they learn and help them surface that info (buy books). Look for opportunities to SPONSOR not just mentor. — cate // @hachyderm.io (@catehstn) March 20, 2017 That seemed like impossible advice. But! some of it is just sharing…
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The Reaction
Since that article on Uber dropped, I’ve been watching people’s reaction. There was the shock from people who should know better, and the lack of surprise from many women but there was also something that I can only describe as a PTSD reaction from many technical women I know. I saw it on Twitter. I…
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All The Shades of Unsurprised
We’re all outraged at Uber – again. Because it turns out that the company that tolerates sexual harassment from their drivers, and in the government they work with, also tolerates and enables it… amongst their own employees. And yeah, this was really bad, but it’s not like this is just Uber. I’ve heard similar stories from…
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#NotAllMen Like Playboy
So I hear that a conference gave away Playboy magazine as part of the event swag. The internet expressed their outrage, and there was an apology. I haven’t read it. I hear it wasn’t stupid, but… meh. Here’s the thing. There are some classes of problem in conference inclusivity. Someone at our event behaved inappropriately.…