How to support your female coworkers, 1% every day.
How to support women in the workplace, part II.
As many women in the workplace, I still feel this way too often: Do I play by the rules, keep quiet and accept the fact that as a female founder I have a lower chance of raising capital, or as a female professional I have fewer chances for that promotion or do I try and change the rules and contribute to positive change, but at the same time “risk my reputation” by being loud and speaking up ?
I decided that I’ll do the latter and published a story that happened to me 4 years ago at a VC event in Silicon Valley: “The real reason for the Silicon Valley gender bias cycle, and how to break it.” I’ve been mindblown by the responses it has received on LinkedIn and Twitter.
This made me realize that most of the biases that contribute to gender inequality are still implicit and I genuinely believe much more people want to put in the work but don’t really know, how. As people of all genders, we contribute to the stereotypes and biases that hold women back. It’s not a “men only” problem, we have to work together to resolve and find solutions.
We all can do small things every day, that really compound if done by many and frequently. That’s why I’ve dug into resources on how to support women at work and wanted to share it with you all:
How to support women at work, 1% every day (not only for men!) 💪
👉 7 Tips for Men Who Want to Support Equality by LeanIn
Top Take-Away: Share Office Housework (Who’s taking care of all those presents and happy hours?)
👉 Five things employers can do today to better support women in the workplace by Smartcompany
Top Take-Away: Extend more family-friendly policies to male employees to break the narrative of women being the primary caretakers.
👉 5 Ways Women Can Support Each Other at Work by SUCCESS Magazine
Top Take-away: When women make key points, repeat those points in the same meeting and credit the person that raised it (“Signal boosting” developed by the female staffers in the Obama White House)
👉 4 Ways Men Can Support Their Female Colleagues — Remotely by Harvard Business Review
Top Take-Away: Provide regular (and more frequent) updates on key business and personnel decisions to women on the team, since they are often cut out of key information cycles
News from Bunch
👉 Read my story: The real reason for the Silicon Valley gender bias cycle, and how to break it
The Female Factor x Bunch = More Female Leaders
We’ve partnered with The Female Factor to support women to step up and take the lead. Read more about it here: The female factor and Bunch announce partnership to redefine leadership
Tips from the Bunch AI coach:
Check out Make Decisions Without Implicit Bias tip by Robin Wright, Diversity Coach and Senior Social Equity Specialist at Design Impact
Have a great week,
Darja