I was deeply moved by Michelle Obama’s speech last week and it motivated me to take a stand individually and for CodeScience. As a values driven organization, we find that our values are only fully realized when they are externalized. As I shared this email with the company on Friday, I realized that it was critical to state this publicly as well.
All…
If you haven’t seen her speech, I encourage you to do so:
The election season has brought misogyny and bigotry to the forefront of our national conversation. As abhorrent as I find many of the statements that have been made, I am thankful that it has opened a platform for those who have suffered to stand up and bravely speak about their experiences.
Molly astutely pointed out to me last night that I am incredibly sensitive to the perception of, and enactment of, “old white boys clubs.” I am being asked to join the board of directors for a not for profit that I care dearly about, but I challenged their chairman as to why they need another white male business professional – wouldn’t they be better served by a diverse board of directors? Don’t diverse voices provide better outcomes?
I want to take this moment to state where we as an organization stand: we don’t stand for misogyny and bigotry. We MUST stand up for people both on our team and external to us. There is absolutely no place in this world for degrading others based on race, gender, gender preference, gender identity, or place of birth.
We had an incident at Dreamforce where a potential client drank too much and began spouting off horrible statements at the table. I am so incredibly proud to work with a sales team who took it upon themselves to meet and discuss whether this was actually a client we wanted to support and whether this was a healthy environment to expose our delivery team to. The conversations we had were deep and meaningful. I appreciate everyone for making healthy, respectful working relationships a core value, and requirement, for our team. Thoroughly impressed.
Lest we not forget:
- Those that struggle with their gender identity have fought lifelong battles 1000x times tougher than what we face in our day to day. We need to be sympathetic to their journey and create safe havens for them to crush it.
- Women, and especially women in tech, have kicked and fought their way through their lives and careers. They often have had to work twice as hard and have to appear twice as competent as their male counterparts just to move forward in their careers. This is wrong and needs to end.
- Origin of birth has no correlation to who a person is. People have no more control of birthplace than you your height. All 2016 US Nobel Laureates are immigrants. Origin of birth has no bearing on capabilities or achievement. Often, they have fought 100x as hard to just to get to the starting line.
Diversity matters. Diverse opinions and experiences build better companies and better products. The most complex systems we engage with are the 7.1B people in this world – and no two are alike. We can choose to put our heads in the sand and pretend there is one gender, one color, one origin of birth or we can proudly stand and embrace this reality.
Let us continue to move forward as a company that does not stand for misogyny or bigotry. Stand up for your team mates and for others in the world. Have the confidence that you are supported, loved, and respected. I have a very short fuse for even the perception of misogyny or bigotry and will not stand for it. I hope you find yourself in the same position.
Best,
BW
