Boulder <3s Women in Tech Boulder Startup Week: May 15, 2013 Jenny Slade, | #BSW13

Women Make Boulder Awesome

Why Women Matter to Technology

Women Correlate with Success Analysis of more than 20,000 venture-backed companies showed that successful startups have twice as many women in senior positions as unsuccessful companies. Dow Jones VentureSource, 2011.

Women Help Companies Grow Tech companies with women have been shown to use 40 percent less capital and be more likely to survive the transition from startup to established company. Cindy Padnos, Illuminate Ventures: "High Performance Entrepreneurs: Women in High-Tech," 2010.

Women Improve Innovation The presence of women in a group is more likely to increase the collective intelligence (problem-solving ability, creativity) of the group than the presence of individuals with higher intelligence. “Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups,” Science October 2010, Woolley, Chabris, Pentland, Hashmi and Malone.

Women Enhance Teams Scott Page, The difference: How the power of diversity creates better groups, firms, schools, and societies, Princeton University Press, Groups with greater diversity solve complex problems better and faster than homogenous groups.

Women Are 50% of the Population. Why Handicap Your Hiring by 50%? "We simply cannot afford to alienate large chunks of the workforce. It is a widely understood truth that the single biggest challenge is attracting the right people … to literally handicap yourself by 50 percent is insanity.” - Dan Shapiro, Google

Women Are 50% of the Market

Women in Tech, By the Numbers Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, 2012; Dow Jones VentureSource, Percent of U.S. technology jobs held by women 26 Percent of women executives at U.S. venture-backed startups 11 Percent of U.S. professional occupations held by women 57 Percent of U.S. software developers who are women 20

The Numbers Don’t Add Up

Why So Few Women in Tech? PipelineAttritionAttraction

Society’s Biased About Gender and Technology

What Do You See In This Picture?

What Is Unconscious Bias? We all have shortcuts, “schemas” that help us make sense of the world. But our shortcuts sometimes make us misinterpret things. That’s unconscious bias.

Example: White male engineering students score lower when told in advance that Asians typically score higher on math tests Source: Aronson, et al., 1999; Steele & Aronson, 1998 Unconscious Bias = Stereotype Threat

Unconscious Bias = Tokenism African American s Xkcd.org with modification by Cohoon, 2012

Unconscious Bias = Micro-inequities  Slights: “You’re the receptionist, right?”  Exclusion: “Oops, I forgot to cc her on that .” »Recognition: “No, I’m pretty sure it was Tom’s idea, not Jane’s, to use a link algorithm.” »Isolation: “Dude, let’s grab a beer!”

Unconscious Bias in Performance Appraisal Identical resumes. Gendered names. Reviewers (of both genders) strongly favor John in skills, hireability, and salary.

Howard vs. Heidi

“Blind” orchestra auditions, with musicians behind a curtain, increased the number of female musicians hired by 25% to 46% percent. Goldin & Rouse (2000) The American Economic Review, 90(4), Unconscious Bias in Hiring

Unconscious Bias Is…Unconscious.

Women and Men at Startups See Things Differently …

Case Study: How Etsy Grew Its Female Engineering Team by 500% Take action from the top Don’t just say you care about diversity Show why your company is a great place to work Invest in early talent Put more than 1 woman on a team (don’t isolate them) Integrate your workspaces

Invite diversity. Use diverse networks, not just your status quo networks, to recruit. Include a woman, and a pile sort, in your job interviews. Remove biased language from job descriptions. Audit your physical space for gender-neutral vibes. If you’re a man, be a male advocate. 5 Things You Can Do Today

1) Invite Diversity

2) Include a Woman, and a Pile Sort, in Job Interviews Pile sort:

3) Remove Biased Language from Job Descriptions “Startups and Job Advertisements,” Aaron Kay, PhD: CONFIDENT OBJECTIVE DECISIVE ANALYTICAL AUTONOMOUS DOMINANT

4) Audit Your Physical Space for Gendered Vibes (Cheryan, S., Plaut, V., Davies, P., & Steele, C. (2009). Ambient belonging: How stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(6), ;

5) If You’re a Man, Be a Male Advocate

What’s Good for the Goose …

NCWIT is the National Center for Women & Information Technology Our coalition includes more than 250 universities, corporations, and non-profits. We Can Help.

Get Going with Free, Research- backed Resources and Programs

We Plug You In.

Panel »Ingrid Alongi : Co-founder and CEO, Quick Left »Jim Franklin : CEO, SendGrid »Greg Greenstreet : VP of Engineering, Gnip »Leslie Osborne : VP of Product + Operations, Standing Cloud »Krista Marks : Engineer, Founder of Nimbee, Kerpoof