ThinkNation: "Women quotas in tech" Meri Williams from Chromerose and M&S Digital

Meri Williams, ChromeRose @Geek_Manager

PRACTICAL DIVERSITY and

The Question of Quotas

Brighton March 2016


http://www.flickr.com/photos/kodomut/3667608102/



I’m A Bit of a Diversity Statistic

❑ Woman… (working in tech) ❑ Gay… ❑ Foreign… ❑ Employed (this is a bad thing if you’re foreign…) ❑ Disabled… ❑ Atheist…

❑ BUT grew up hugely aware of (unasked & undeserved) privilege I had growing up white in Apartheid South Africa.


My childhood was FULL of signs like these

Horrible & horrific but impossible

to escape


I CANNOT DENY THAT PRIVILEGEIn fact, the most useful thing I can do is assess, understanding & acknowledge that privilege


Check out the original article from Peggy McIntosh: http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html

In Apartheid South Africa, ALL systems

were set up to actively & blatantly give advantage to white folks and

disadvantage non-whites.

We are less good at spotting this when it

isn’t so blatant.

http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html




“We have to aggressively, and uncompromisingly, attack the pernicious lie that the technology industry is a meritocracy. Perpetuating this myth only serves to bolster the egos of those who have succeeded already, at the expense of saying that people who are underrepresented in tech today aren’t present because they aren’t good”

– Anil Dash


http://xkcd.com/385/


PRIVILEGE IS A PROBLEM WHEN PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE ENTITLED TO AND DESERVING OF THEIR ADVANTAGES


Privilege = Difficulty Setting of Game of Life

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-the-lowest-difficulty-setting-there-is/



NOT DISCRIMINATING IS IMPORTANT

Legally, if nothing else


BUT TOLERANCE IS A TERRIBLE WORD

Would YOU want to be tolerated?


WOULDN’T A FULLY INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT BE BETTER?

PROTIP: Helps Everyone!


Diversity is a Spectrum

Active hatred & discrimination (*isms)

Micro aggressions

Indifference Active inclusion

Tolerance


“A micro-aggression is telling young boys that they are very smart, and telling young girls that they are very pretty. ”

- Faruk Ates @kurafire


So How Do We Move Right Way?

1. STOP allowing underprivileged groups to be pushed away (actively/deliberately OR passively/unintentionally)

2. START building actively inclusive environments


40% OF WOMEN LEAVE THE TECH INDUSTRY WITHIN 10 YEARS OF GRADUATING


ARE QUOTAS A NECESSARY PART OF MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?


TWO MAIN VIEWPOINTS:1) YOU GET WHAT YOU MEASURE 2) YOU HURT INDIVIDUALS BY MAKING THEM “DIVERSITY HIRES” (IMPLYING THEY ARE NOT AS GOOD)


A BETTER PIPELINE DOESN’T HELP IF A MEAT GRINDER LIES AT THE END OF IT


CREATING AN INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT:1) AM I EXPECTED HERE? 2) AM I RESPECTED HERE? 3) CAN SOMEONE LIKE ME BE SUCCESSFUL HERE?



Technology

ThinkNation: "Women quotas in tech" Meri Williams from Chromerose and M&S Digital