How The Tech Industry Can Make Even More Progress In Empowering Women By Traci Wade, Vice President, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Oracle
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t’s plain to anyone who’s visited the gleaming halls of Silicon Valley giants and their outposts across the world that the tech industry still lags in achieving gender equality. That really shouldn’t be surprising to any of us, as women for so long were discouraged from pursuing careers in fields like mathematics, engineering, and computer science. The gap has closed in recent years thanks to changing attitudes, but the enduring legacy of past preconceptions still exists, and a lack of visibility, mentorship, sponsorship, and inclusive culture still keeps a lot of women from pursuing their passion for technology. This is what I’m keeping in mind as we celebrate Women’s History Month throughout March, and International Women’s Day on March 8, when we honor the contributions of women in our communities and our workplaces and pledge to do more to achieve equality across the world by “breaking the bias.” But there’s a way forward;
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here at Oracle, I see it demonstrated every day. Achieving gender equality through hiring and career advancement demands proactive efforts to help women succeed. I’m proud that Oracle is supportive of women in leadership positions. I’m not just talking about our wonderful CEO and other senior executives, but women at every level and in every role. Oracle stands out in this male-dominated industry by the level at which it empowers women and benefits from their talents. That includes the tech side of our business, which is where bias most often impedes the careers of promising women. There’s no simple formula for this success. But there are some tangible measures that we’ve seen really drive progress. One is to remove the stigma of career breaks. Because pregnancy, maternity, childcare, and even elder care more often impact women’s careers than men’s, women are more likely
to take long professional leaves, then struggle with the challenge of re-entering a job market. That trend has been exacerbated over the last two years by the pandemic, and now the vast majority of re-entry candidates are women. We need to support them. That’s the thinking behind our Oracle Women Relaunch Program designed to help reintegrate individuals into the workforce after a career break of a year or more. This isn’t the “returnship” that many companies offer, which are just internships that, at best, come with an opportunity for hire. This program brings candidates directly into full-time positions. We’re aiming to implement this program around the world, as women outside the United States were often even more severely impacted by COVID-19. It was once considered risky to hire “relaunchers,” and companies put up obstacles that resulted in the loss of a vast pool of talent and experience. In recent years,
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