making space for moms
TRANSCRIPT
Making Space for Moms In Tech Workplaces
Nonprofit CEO by day, mom to two munchkins by night …
Why does gender balance matter?
1.Diversity of thoughts, experiences, perspectives leads to better ideas and decisions
2.Tapping a wider pool of talent means better talent (that is: open up competition to the other half of the population)
GapJumpers gathered data from nearly 1,200 auditions across 13 companies—attempting to see how the numbers stacked up when the early stages of hiring were done blindly. Once the blind challenge was completed, the gender breakdown of those candidates hired was 58% women, 42% men.
What are some barriers to gender balance in the workplace?
1.Some women reluctantly leave the workforce because of untenable work/life conflicts and find it difficult to re-enter
2.Some women choose to take time away from work, most of whom intend to return, but find re-entry difficult
And yet … many companies resist the policies and practices that would help more women stay in and re-enter the workforce.
… So I quit.
“They pressured me to come back 6 weeks after I had my son and I wanted to take the full 12 weeks, or maybe more …”
“I asked if I could work from home one day per week and they said no.”
“I’d run through all my vacation and PTO and my mom still needed me.”
Myth buster: most moms want to work
•When part-time options don’t exist some choose to “grin and bear it” and others choose to quit.
•Neither of those outcomes is great for businesses
Myth buster: men prefer part-time too – even those without children
In a survey, 59% of working fathers said “I would choose to work part-time if I could still have a meaningful and productive career”
AND, 57% of men WITHOUT children agreed!
Source: How Men Flex: The Working Mother Report, July 23, 2015
But moms are more likely to make the tradeoff …
… and pay the priceOne study in the American Journal of Sociology found that mothers are 79% less likely to be hired for a tech position and are offered an average of $11,000 less in salary.
The Impact of the gap
“At every interview there was this awkward pause when they noticed the gap. They acted like I’d spent the time in jail.” – a 2015 returnee who was out of the workforce for a little less than two years caring for her newborn son
What’s going on here?
EVERYONE experiences work/life conflict
What’s different is :• Our perception (read: bias) of who has conflict and who
doesn’t and what impact that conflict has on performance
• The extent of the conflict and how people respond to it
The way we treat moms is the way we treat women
Let’s start the conversation1.Make reducing work/life conflict a corporate goal, not an individual burden2.Model work/life integration – especially at senior levels3.Offer flexible and part-time options to everyone and make it truly okay to take advantage of them4.Be open to “radical” solutions – open PTO was radical until it wasn’t5.Value results instead of face time6.Don’t overlook great talent because of career gaps – it will be impossible to increase gender
diversity without providing on ramps for women who’ve taken time off7.Recognize bias – in recruiting, hiring, promotion, performance evaluations8.Engage women in conversations about their careers and remember (and remind them) that what
will work for them will change over the years
Control of your time matters more than volume of hours worked. One study done by BYU and IBM found that people who could control when and where they worked could log 57 hours per week before a significant number experienced work-family conflict.
Without that control, the tipping point happened at 38 hours per week.
Change is hard …
96% of people surveyed said sleep was important to them
But 57% said that while their sleep could be better they were not taking any steps to improve it
Source: Phillips Global Sleep Survey
