Canadian tech sector not immune to sexism and discrimination of Silicon Valley

"Why can't a woman just be skilled at what she does and actually not play some other role you're expecting her to?"

Kirstine Stewart, former Twitter executive and current chief strategy office at Diply, says she wasn’t surprised by the content of a letter written by a Google engineer that ascribed gender inequality in tech industry to biological differences.

The sexism displayed in a controversial missive written by a now-fired male Google engineer is alive and well in Canada's tech sector, says one of the country's most prominent media bosses.

Former Twitter executive Kirstine Stewart says she wasn't surprised by the content of the internal letter, which went viral over the weekend, and cautioned anyone north of the border from being "holier than thou."

"Some of these opinions are borderless and I think that's why we have to be really diligent," says Stewart, also a former CBC executive who is now chief strategy officer with the online site Diply.

"I would caution anybody who thinks it's much better in Canada."

The widely shared letter, titled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber," ascribed the tech industry's gender inequality to biological differences and criticized Google for pushing diversity programs. The engineer was reportedly fired, with Google CEO Sundar Pichai denouncing his screed for "advancing harmful gender stereotypes."

"I hope people don't look at (this) and go, 'Well, that's just the crazy U.S.,"' says Stewart, who joined Diply after spending three years at Twitter, first in charge of Canadian operations and then as head of North American media partnerships.

"We stand up a bit more and call each other on it because it's closer, I guess, to the values that we talk about more publicly than they do in the States. But I don't know that we're performing any better."

The stories coming out of Silicon Valley in the past few months have been stunning: steady claims of sexism and discrimination surrounding titans like the taxi-hailing app Uber and the venture fund 500 Startups.

Stewart says she's experienced her share of incidents over a lengthy career and adds it's frustrating that things don't seem to be moving forward enough.

"I had a female manager say to me that their managers had said, 'Oh, we're hoping that on the team you would be the nurturing one.' There were too many stereotypes and we have to get past stereotypes and into skills," says Stewart.

"Why can't a woman just be skilled at what she does and actually not play some other role you're expecting her to?"

The associate dean of outreach at the University of Waterloo is keen to be part of the solution.

Mary Wells, also professor of mechanical and mechatronics, recently won an award for encouraging women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields and says "there's absolutely been a culture shift" in recent decades.

The school's engineering curriculum includes discussion of such issues, but she admits more can be done to prepare both men and women for a new mindset.

"In first-year co-op a woman gets a job maybe before a male colleague, and right away he will say – and he's not trying to be mean – 'You must be their diversity hire,"' says Wells.

"The men can't believe that she can be just as good as he is or even better, and she also doesn't believe that she may be just as good as he is."

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Article Spotted By: Kathryn Benson

Article Published in: The Globe and Mail / August 9, 2017

Article Written by:   Casssandra Szklarski

The Awesome Influence of Women in HR

Whether they’re eliminating traditional performance reviews, improving employee engagement or putting more women in upper management, female HR leaders are making a difference. Meet some of the women influencing HR.

Organizations are transforming how they manage their workforces, and women in C-suite human resources positions are leading the way.

As you read each profile, you’ll see how these women are ending formal annual performance reviews, closing the wage gap, improving gender parity and diversity, and increasing employee engagement, among other initiatives.

It’s also the only leadership role that is predominantly female. Seventy-three percent of HR practitioners at the manager level are female, according to 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, compared against 43 percent in marketing and 27 percent in IT.

Although the numbers dwindle at the highest level of HR, women still hold an employment edge when compared to their male counterparts. CEB, a best practice insight and technology company, analyzed 382 HR executive appointments between 2011 and 2016 and found that 55 percent of these new hires are female. This coincides with separate data from executive search firm Korn Ferry, which found that from a sample of top 1,000 U.S. companies, 55 percent of CHROs are women.

Click here to read more about the awesome influence of women in HR!

Article spotted by Alison Peters

Original article by by Andie Burjek and, Michelle V. Rafter

Originally published January 10 , 2017 on Workforce

What do employees love about work? Professional development tops the list - Yet only 26% of employees surveyed saw adequate opportunity for growth

After all the cards, flowers and chocolates have been consumed and news of engagements spread throughout the office on Valentine's Day, most Americans will return to the reality of their jobs.

But loving one's job is not just about earning a paycheck anymore — we can thank millennials and Generation Z for that. Today, employees are happier and more satisfied in the workplace than ever before.

Employees Love Transparency and Opportunities for Career Growth

The TINYPulse 2017 Employee Engagement Report gathered a million responses from anonymous U.S. employees to determine what they love about their jobs. The results show that organizational culture and the way peers interact are critical success factors. Where there is a lack of professional development and recognition, however, employee happiness and progress suffer. 

The survey found...

Article spotted by Alison Peters
Original article by Tess Taylor 
Originally published February 14, 2017 on HRDive

The One Question You Should Ask About Every New Job

Article spotted by Alison Peters
Original article by Adam Grant 
Originally published December 19, 2015 on the New York Times Sunday Review 

TWO years ago, a student of mine named Nicole was torn on where to start her career. While applying for jobs in finance, technology, consulting and marketing, she suddenly realized that her biggest concern wasn’t what she did, but where she worked.

When it comes to landing a good job, many people focus on the role. Although finding the right title, position and salary is important, there’s another consideration that matters just as much: culture. The culture of a workplace — an organization’s values, norms and practices — has a huge impact on our happiness and success.

But how do you figure out the culture of a company you’ve never worked for? As Nicole tried to evaluate company cultures, she kept asking the Passover question: “How is this organization different from all other organizations?” And, as with Passover, I told Nicole, the answer should come in the form of a story. Ask people to tell you a story about something that happened at their organization but wouldn’t elsewhere.

After collecting stories from people at different levels of an organization, Nicole noticed that they touched on common themes. That was a good sign: There was some consensus about the company’s values. But when she talked to other companies, the same kinds of stories kept surfacing in every company she talked to. Why?

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