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equal opportunity employment journal
November 2020
4 Ways Tech Companies Can Help Women Succeed
T
he hottest topics facing Silicon Valley go well beyond simply the latest tech gadgets and newest devices. It is an issue of social matters and gender equality. The representation of women in technology, or lack there-
by Patrick W. Dunne
of, has been a heated talking point for years. Everyone from Hillary Clinton to Sheryl Sandberg has chastised the Bay Area’s technology central for being an exclusive “boy’s club” where its denizens are overwhelmingly White or Asian.
Having diversity isn’t just great for the women of Silicon Valley; it can be great for the companies as well. Here are a few ways that both technology companies and female workers can benefit from added diversity:
1. T hey could adopt better parental leave policies Matheson is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual orientation, gender or any other characteristic protected by state or federal law.
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Part of the reason that technology jobs have trouble retaining women is that the maternity leave policies in place are often incredibly inflexible and make it difficult for working women to be full-time employees and care for their children. Textio co-founder and CEO Kieran Snyder conducted a study wherein she interviewed 716 women who had left the tech industry. Snyder reported that 484 of the women she surveyed had cited motherhood as a factor in their decision to leave, with 85 of them saying it was a “major factor” in their decision. Others said that it wasn’t the lack of maternity leave that caused them to abandon their jobs, but rather inflexible hours, lack of suitable pay, and other related factors. Google is one of the few major tech companies that offers paid maternity leave. Even in its early years, when it didn’t have revenue, founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page decided that they should extend maternity leave to Susan Wojcicki, the current CEO of YouTube. In an op-ed for Wall Street Journal, Wojcicki cited a study that showed that 91 percent of companies who have instated maternity leave had reported that it either had a positive effect or no effect at all on their profits. Additionally, Wojcicki said that when Google extended their maternity leave from 12 weeks to 18 weeks, the turnover rate for working mothers was reduced by half. Paying for maternity leave was a smart move on Google’s part because replacing an employee costs more than paying for maternity leave. In short, maternity leave not only benefits its female recipients, but benefits the company as well. It’s a winwin situation that any wise company ought to start reaping the benefits of.
