Good news, sexism is solved!
If you didn't see the tech news last week, the annual Grace Hopper conference was cancelled this year. Last year for its 25th anniversary, over 25,000 people attended, mostly women early in their tech careers looking to build community. This year, it was cancelled with just a few weeks of notice.
Of course, the cancellation makes total sense, because obviously the tech industry is at total gender parity now. Every engineering group is filled with women! Female founders get half the venture funding available! You look at the typical exec team and can't help thinking, "But seriously, where are all the men?"
Oh wait! None of that is true at all.
Regular tech life
I have been part of many tech leadership teams in my career. Other than the years when I led Textio, I have generally been the only woman in the group. In fact, this is my experience right now, in the present day.
Currently, I work on a team with decent people. I like my colleagues on the leadership team and they are not jerks. Not all the teams where I've been outnumbered have been positive, but many of them have. So you might reasonably wonder, what's the big deal? Why bother having events like Grace Hopper in the first place?
Much research has been done about when and how women tend to leave tech careers. Back in 2014, I even published some myself. Contrary to popular belief, most women in tech don't stop working when they have kids. They leave the industry when, over a period of many years, they find themselves paid less and wildly outnumbered on the job.
This phenomenon is not unique to tech, and it's not unique to women, either. In multiple domains, being an 'only' is sufficiently disheartening that most people avoid it when possible.
In other words, in field after field, people regularly walk away from years of training and education when they feel that they do not belong in the room. Even if they are the most qualified person there.
I hate conferences, but I liked Grace Hopper
Full disclosure: I mostly try to avoid conferences. I know many people love conferences and find them to be effective ways to network and learn. Me, I would nearly always hide in my hotel room on my laptop than attend conference events. This is true no matter how great the conference is. Introvert life FTW.
I've attended Grace Hopper twice in my career, one as an attendee early in my tech career, and then, some years later, as a main stage speaker. The first time I was there, I networked and got some job offers. The second time I was there, I mostly hung out with other tech leaders I have come to know over the years.
In both cases, Grace Hopper felt different from other industry events I've attended, and certainly different from my day-to-day life in tech. The reason is simple: The event catches women before it's too late. Before they've learned that they don't fit in. From the jump, attendees look around and know that they belong in the room. That energy compounds, creates confidence and resilience. I found it inspiring.
Because listen, best case, most women in the tech industry are part of communities like this once or twice a year. This is weighed against the other 2,000 hours (!) that the average tech person spends working their day job every year. 2,000 hours where, the more technical women are and the more senior they are, the more outnumbered they are.
Basic talent math
If you believe that intrinsic talent is distributed evenly across people of different demographic backgrounds, then it stands to reason that you want people of widely varying backgrounds to consider working for you. (If you don't believe that talent is distributed evenly across people of different demographic backgrounds, then you may have found the wrong newsletter.)
When you recruit from a broad group of people, you have more talent to choose from. Which allows you to select from the most capable people on the market rather than just from a limited subset. Which ultimately is what you want, right? A team where the most talented people in the world want to work, so you can win.
Events like Grace Hopper aren't the problem. If you deinvest in them, do so not because they're somehow unfair, but because they're insufficient. They are a pale shadow of the solution to a huge operational gap.
Kieran
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