Det är upp till dig, tech
Sverige har länge varit framgångsrikt inom IT och jämställdhet. Därför har det varit glädjande att se allt fler initiativ för att främja just jämställdhetsarbetet inom IT-branschen. Samtidigt finns det svåra problem med representation av alla kön bland anställda på IT-företag och på tech-konferenser, och branschen dras med en problematisk machokultur.
Idag är det dags för STHLM Tech Fest, en tech-konferens där många ledande personer från tech- och startupscenen kommer att delta. Ett av eventets dragplåster är VD:n för den populära dejtingappen Tinder, Sean Rad. Tinder har nyligen blivit stämda för sexuella trakasserier och diskriminering i USA av den tidigare marknadsföringschefen Whitney Wolfe.
STHLM Tech Fest siktar på att bli årets konferens inom tech-världen (sthlmtechfest.com), i nivå med Slush i Finland, och ger startup-företag tillgång till nya användare, riskkapitalister och marknadsföringsmöjligheter. Att de väljer att använda Rad som en förebild är oroväckande för jämställdhetskulturen på eventet och sätter ett dåligt exempel för en ny våg av entreprenörer.
Många företag inom IT arbetar hårt för att förbättra jämställdheten. Industriledare som IBM och HP har båda kvinnliga VD:ar. Startups som Mentimeter visar med hjälp av deras mätverktyg på innovativa sätt att aktivt jobba med och följa upp jämställdhetsarbetet inom tech. I Sverige har även TechEq tagit fart, ett initiativ startat av IT-konsulter på Netlight för att stötta jämställdheten på teknikföretag. Idag har över 60 företag anmält sig till initiativet.
Stämningsanklagelserna mot Tinders VD är dock långt ifrån unika. Diskriminering och trakasserier är fortfarande ett enormt problem inom tech. Forskning från The Center for Talent Innovation:s 2014 Athena Factor 2.0 Rapporten, som tidigare rapporterats om i Harvard Business Review, visar att 51 % av kvinnorna inom tech i USA har upplevt sexuella trakasserier, och 36 % av dem uppfattade fördomar i sina utvärderingar. I Sverige pratade Dagens Industris podcast ”Digitalpodden” nyligen om sexism, och om hur det råder en “bredare kultur av grabbighet” inom teknikbranschen. Likartad kritik har även lyfts kring det senaste STHLM Tech evenemanget, där en av investerarna fällde en sexistisk kommentar på scen utan att någon på eventet reagerade.
Sedan kritiken har STHLM Tech Fest lagt större vikt på jämställdhetskulturen inför eventet och bett alla talarna att skriva under ett kontrakt där de lovar att prata på ett mer inkluderande sätt. Vid sidan av huvudevenemanget har även Klarna, King och andra sponsorer arrangerat Women Create Tech; ett slutsålt evenemang riktat enbart mot kvinnor inom tech- och startupscenen.
Dessa viktiga exempel verkar lovande inför framtiden av svensk tech, men vi är långt ifrån klara. Det är allas ansvar att branschen blir mer inkluderande, och för att vi ska nå dit krävs ett aktivt jämställdhetsarbete.
De 60 plus företag som skrivit under TechEq kommer att börja med att mäta hur många kvinnor och män det finns på varje avdelning och på varje nivå av företaget (ledning, styrelse, osv). Ett tips är att använda sig av gratisverktyg som finns på Jämställ.nu och Do.se. Det senare erbjuder verktyg och lathundar för att ta reda på hur man skapar en jämställdhetsplan, något som lagen kräver av varje företag med 25 eller fler anställda. DO hjälper även till med tips på hur man ska genomföra lönekartläggningar för att förebygga ojämställda löner.
Nyligen har vi sett ytterligare ett exempel på hur gaming-världen har mött flera utmaningar med sexism, dock den här gången men ett annorlunda resultat. Förra helgen fick den välkända gaming kritikern Annita Sarkeesian flera dödshot så extrema att hon inte kände sig säker i sin bostad. Dödshoten var en reaktion på att hon pratade om sexism i spel i sin senaste youtube-serie.
Händelsen ledde snabbt till starka reaktioner inom gaming-communityt. Ett öppet brev som signerades av 2000 dataspelutvecklare och gamers förklarade att de står emot trakasserier och diskriminering i gaming. I brevet skrev de bland annat: ”We believe that everyone, no matter what gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or disability has the right to play games, criticise games and make games without getting harassed or threatened. It is the diversity of our community that allows games to flourish.”
Men de gjorde mer än bara stå emot någonting som de tyckte var hemskt, de bad även folk att rapportera trakasserier och stå emot det offentligt: ”If you see hateful, harassing speech, take a public stand against it and make the gaming community a more enjoyable space to be in.”
Det är precis detta sorters beteende som krävs inom hela tech-branschen för att diskriminering och trakasserier ska ta slut: folk måste lyssna – inte skratta – när någon berättar en upplevelser av sexism. Det går inte – och det är inte ok – om folk vill ha en bransch där alla är välkomna.
Vi har ett historiskt tillfälle framför oss just nu, och det är dags att göra ett val – vilken sorts bransch vill vi ha? Vill vi ha en bransch med bara en sorts person – vita män – eller vill vi vara välkomnande för alla? Framtiden är i allas händer, och det är allas handlingar och reaktioner på trakasserier och diskriminering som berättar historien om hur vi vill att branschen ska se ut.
Tanvir Mansur, skribent och debattör
Alice Marshall, entreprenör och konsult, Add Gender AB
Karin Bogren, grundare Get to Work HR Consulting
Annie Thorell, initiativtagare Faces of Tech
Anurag Choudhary, Executive Director, Tie Nordic
Donna Hanafi, Marknadschef, Mentimeter
Jane Ruffino, Sunday Business Post
Yasmina Suhonen, student, Hyper Island
Introducing #Eqmeter, Add Gender and Mentimeter’s equality tool
I am delighted to write this blog to kick-off Add Gender and Mentimeter’s partnership and release of #eqmeter. Together, we are ensuring that organizations globally have a free tool that will allow them to kick-start equality discussions, follow-up equality work and easily illustrate long-term equality trends. Mentimeter is a free survey tool that you can use for meetings, conferences, and group discussions. It shows the results of your survey questions in real time, and the audience answers using their phones. It’s especially great for equality, because it’s anonymous. So there is no barrier to having an honest, open discussion.
Add Gender and Mentimeter are releasing the #eqmeter, which is a global, 3-question survey that measures every participant’s answers in real time. Check it out here and immediately see how your answers change the overall tally. We are also giving away a free, 5-question survey about equality to every person who tries Mentimeter‘s free premium trial.
I want to say upfront, though, that this tool isn’t for measuring everything relating to equality. It has limits. You might be wondering, “How do you measure equality?” Well, we have a tool called 3R that allows us to measure three different areas concerning equality in an organization.
First, we look at the number of women and men at all levels and departments. (This can also be applied to other diversity indicators, like age or background). We also look at who’s taking sick leave, parental leave, full time or part time employment, and lots of other things.
The next area we look at is resources. Are people being paid the same wages for equal work? Allowed the same opportunities for professional development? And so on.
The third area that we look at is culture. This is where surveys like Mentimeter are helpful. They help us understand how people feel, why equality is important at their workplace, what’s hindering equality, work/life balance, and much more. The limitations that survey data have is that they cannot provide us with statistics on either of the first 2 areas that I mentioned – they can’t give us facts regarding representation or resources. For those, we need to use other tools.
But they can provide us with a goldmine of rich data on whether or not people know who to talk to if they experience discrimination or harassment, whether people feel that there are equal opportunities for everyone, and much more.
Mentimeter is also great as means of following up on your equality goals. This could be through doing a short equality survey in your team meetings or conferences every few weeks or months, and tracking the results over time. Feel free to customize this survey and add on questions that are relevant to your organization.
Every country has different rules regarding how you should work with equality. In Sweden, if you have 25 or more employees, you have to write an equality plan and update it every 3 years. If you have one man and one woman employed doing the same work, you have to do wage surveys every 3 years to make sure that you’re not discriminating in your payment of salaries. Add Gender can help you with these things, and there are many free resources on the Discrimination Ombudsman’s website too. To really understand the third area, culture, and follow the law, organizations with 25 or more employees also need more advanced surveys than the one provided here to understand their present situation.
We hope you’ll use this tool to start talking about equality, to start asking questions, and to follow-up with your other equality work. Last week I used Mentimeter to ask a few questions at a lecture for 100 people, and they were delighted with the real-time results. I hope your team is also delighted and interested in their survey results! Let us know what you think! Follow the discussions at #eqmeter and #techeq. I especially want to thank Jessica Areborn, who was instrumental in making this tool happen.
Why I must come out as trans: Geena Rocero’s TEDtalk
This is an amazing story, and a really awesome TED talk. It talks about one woman’s story of self-acceptance. My favorite quote is this: ”We’re all assigned gender at birth. What I’m trying to do is have this conversation that, sometimes, that gender assignment doesn’t match. There should be a space that would allow people to self-identify. That’s a conversation that we should have with parents, with colleagues.” I love the idea that Geena opens up for questioning and explaining. Many people have no idea what it’s like to be trans, and that’s why it’s so valuable that Geena shared her story. Take a look and get inspired!
You can find me here: http://www.addgender.se/alice-marshall/
Men Leading Gender Equality
Lately I’ve been noticing that a lot of men are starting awesome initiatives to create more gender equality. I wanted to write this blog to share these initiatives, and I also wanted to talk about the fact that gender equality is not just about women. Gender equality is about equality between women and men, and thus, has to do with both men and women. Gender inequalities in society affect men in profound ways, from childhood to adulthood. They limit the choices that both men and women can make. In order for us to get rid of these unwritten rules and norms and create a society where gender doesn’t matter in terms of your wage, your choice of profession, in who takes care of children and sick parents, and so many other things, we need the help and participation of both women and men.
I want the discussion surrounding gender equality to be inclusive, positive, and proactive. And I want men to feel welcome in this discussion. The aim of this blog is to show the many examples of men who are already leading gender equality. I hope that this list only grows in the future.
To start with, I wanted to highlight our three extremely talented male colleagues on our team at Add Gender. Frederick Lidman is an expert on masculinity, i.e. the norms and expectations placed on men. Emil Åkerö is an expert on norms, and cultural representations of LGBTQ individuals. Tomas Gunnarsson, aka Genusfotografen, works with gender depictions in media, especially in pictures and advertising. We are extremely proud of the awesome team we’ve gathered together at Add Gender. We’re always learning from each other, and that’s why I think we have the best team of gender equality and diversity consultants in Sweden.
In addition to our awesome male colleagues who are working everyday to improve gender equality, the following list includes some of the most exciting initiatives at the moment created by men. Of course there are so many more men who are leading gender equality who aren’t on this list. Feel free to add more names and initiatives in the comments. For those who are new to us, we welcome you to join the discussion, help us expand our network, and chat with us on FB and twitter. Let’s create equality together! Without further ado, here are the initiatives:
The folks behind Tacka Nej: Thomas Frostberg, Marcin de Kaminski and Fredrik Wass (pictures in that order), in collaboration with Rättviseförmedlingen:
What’s #TackaNej?
Tacka Nej is a campaign, started by the three of us together with Rättviseförmedlingen (Equalisters), meaning to make unbalanced public appearances – panels, jurys, events and such – more proportionate. (Alice’s note: Tacka Nej translates as ”decline.” When invited to speak on a panel, the ever-increasing members of this initiative will only attend on the condition that there is at least 1 woman onstage as well. Otherwise, they’ll decline. People show their commitment by putting themselves on the Tackanej list, which you can see by scrolling down on their homepage. This initiative is a follow-up to a similar, also highly successful initiative by Rättviseförmedlingen from two years ago, Tackaja, which focused on getting more women in TV debates, in the media, to be selected as experts on panels, etc.)
Why is equality important to you?
Today, we can see how most panels and events are effectively ignoring a large part of our population. For no reason. This means that we all miss out on a huge amount of knowledge and wisdom. Tacka Nej is an attempt to balance public appearances in order to get the best out of our population all together.
Anurag Choudhary, TiE Nordic, Women Investing in Women Meetup
What’s Women Investing in Women?
Women Investing In Women is a global coalition of passionate individuals to foster broader access to capital for women and to promote the growth of women-led startups and businesses. Stockholm Investing In Women Meetup series is a local initiative in this direction with a focus on showcasing women in startups as founders, leaders and investors.
Why is equality important on the startup scene?
I think gender equality is not only important; it is a MUST for any healthy and vibrant startup scene. Women are excellent leaders, team-builders, they bring higher returns, they are better money-managers, they combine logical and intuitive thinking in seamlessly amazing ways, they are power users of every popular and useful technology, they are super connectors, the companies they build are more capital efficient than the average. So, I strongly feel that working towards creating favorable conditions to nurture more high-growth women-led startups should be a TOP priority for everyone involved within the startup ecosystem in any capacity.
Jonas Karlsson, Swedish Tech People
What’s Swedish Tech People?
Swedish Tech People is a list of women in tech and startups in Sweden. (Alice’s note: Jonas created this list by sending out a blank spreadsheet on Twitter and asking people to fill it out. He’s currently adding more people to the list as people email him their name, title and a picture. As of January 27, 2014, there were 86 people on the list.)
Why is equality important to you / on the startup scene and in IT?
The more perspectives the better. We must realize that much of what we take as given truths in the IT and startup world today, are truths which usually are created by men.
The organization Men for Gender equality (Män för jämställdhet)
You can learn more about Men for Gender equality on their website or facebook page, or learn more about membership here.
Finally! A Woman Will Be Leading US Central Bank
Today I woke up to some pretty awesome news. For the first time in 100 years, the US Federal Reserve, the central bank of the US, will have a female chairwoman, Janet Yellen. This is a huge deal! You can read about it here: (Yellen to Lead Fed, New York Times) Yellen was just confirmed by the Senate yesterday and is expected to take office in February. This position is one of the most powerful in American government, and especially in the field of finance, it’s so wonderful to see a step forward on the gender equality front. In terms of worldwide central bankers, there are very few women. The European Central Bank has some serious gender equality work to do, with not a single woman among its 23 member policy board. (Women Scarce in Central Banks, New York Times). Just make it happen people! If the US can do it, so can you. No. More. Excuses.
