Leading Toward a Better Future...

​As our country celebrates the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women’s constitutional right to vote, many of us can’t imagine a United States that would deny voice to half its citizens. Yet, as our president prepares to issue a proclamation designating August 26 as National Women’s Equality Day, as each president since Richard Nixon has done, one can’t help but wonder if the day has been misnamed. Women are grossly underrepresented in government, across the executive suite, and recent statistics show that although the pay gap is narrowing, women still only make 85% of what their male counterparts are paid. It begs the question: can we truly ever achieve equality? According to Susan Wojcicki, one of the tech industry’s greatest leaders, the answer is a resounding yes!—if we pay attention.

​Current CEO of YouTube (owned by Google since 2006), Wojcicki started as Google’s 16th employee, and helped build the tech juggernaut to multi-billion dollar status. More importantly, however, she’s helping to break the glass ceiling of the tech world, and challenging us to think in terms of “how?” rather than simply, “what if?” In a Vanity Fair essay addressing the lack of female representation in the tech industry, Wojcicki states that while Human Resources departments play an integral role in creating a fairer work landscape, they must have the commitment and personal attention of workplace leaders to succeed. “It really needs to come from the top,” she says. “You need your entire management team to realize this is important—that we’re going to be a better, stronger team if we have diversity.” A large part of this, she argues, is paying attention to obstacles underrepresented groups face, then doing what you can to eliminate them. She offers two pieces of advice:    

1. Make equality and diversity a personal priority.  A mother of 5, Wojcicki began her career with Google when she was 4 months into her first pregnancy. As the first woman to ever take maternity leave at Google, she was instrumental in shaping the company’s parental leave policy. She noticed that while she was able to take the necessary time to bond with and care for her new child before returning to work, many of her industry peers faced the decision of either returning to their jobs shortly after giving birth, or losing their jobs, altogether. Immediately upon returning, Wojcicki met with the leadership teams at Google, urging them to draft a generous, company-wide parental leave policy, and detailing for them the business benefits of doing so. In 2007, she pushed for a policy change that increased Google’s paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 18 weeks, and the rate at which new mothers left Google fell by 50%. When asked why she fought so hard to remove this barrier to working mothers, she responded, “We wanted to retain women. We wanted to show them that Google cared, and that they can be a mother and work at Google.”
2. Support and help organize groups for underrepresented employees. In her essay titled, How to Break Up the Silicon Valley Boys’ Club, Wojcicki argues, “Underrepresented employees already have to overcome discriminatory barriers in their careers; they shouldn’t be expected to volunteer their time to help their companies do the same.” While Wojcicki invests money in many different minority support groups, she says the most meaningful support often comes from simply paying attention, then filling a need. “Companies should take the lead from underrepresented groups, but they also need to provide resources to help them execute on their priorities, whether it’s holding trainings or off-sites, sending people to conferences or hosting social events.” Wojcicki mentors young women rising through the tech world, and spearheads networking events for women in the tech industry. Within Google and its subsidiaries, she provides leadership training that prioritizes an equality mindset.

​When companies provide underrepresented groups the resources they need to feel heard, supported and valued, and work to eliminate employment barriers, everyone wins. With National Women’s Equality Day so close on the horizon, we’re grateful for the civil rights leaders of the past, who tirelessly fought to bring women’s suffrage to reality, and for the equality-minded leaders of today, like Susan Wojcicki, who are fighting to make our workforce a fairer place. We, as leaders, are part of this great tradition, and we have nearly unlimited power to make a difference. 
 
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