[Applause]
so today I want to talk about how we can
make a change I want to talk about how
we can improve our workplaces increase
innovation better our lives and
ourselves today I want to talk about
diversity and equity and being open
minded and building each other up and
not just for underrepresented groups and
minorities but for all of us as a
collective so that we can move forward
and make a real and valuable change
together so Who am I I am a queer half
Asian women in engineering studying how
we can build sustainable pharmaceutical
industries using alternative solvents
and I’m really grateful to be able to
speak to you today because I believe
that we can make a change and move past
the historical status quos that have
defined us so in my workplace as a PhD
candidate I think that we’re incredibly
diverse we actually have a lot of
different ages and backgrounds different
sexualities and we come from all over
the world but if you look at other
places within the university or if you
look higher up it’s not the same but
does this actually even matter is this a
problem often when we’re talking about
diversity in science technology
engineering and mathematics or stem
we’re talking about the women in stem
problem but diversity goes beyond that
it’s not just about gender of course we
have inequities in stem and more widely
in society but diversity is about all
genders all sexualities all abilities
age those with different cultural
backgrounds sexualities those with
mental illness diversity is about
difference but it’s about what brings us
together
and when I’m talking about diversity I’m
talking about who we are so often when
we’re talking about this lack of
diversity we’re talking about what
underrepresented people and minorities
can do about it we say they should
pursue certain careers or that they
should adapt in certain ways to succeed
but the problem is actually systemic we
should value diversity we know that
diverse teams perform better so what is
the problem why is this a thing that we
have to worry about there are a number
of barriers that are holding us back and
so if I can just tell you about a few of
the most critical ones I would say that
these are harassment discrimination with
deep roots in history resulting in
conscious and unconscious bias
stereotyping accessibility and a lack of
flexibility in workplaces so instead of
talking about the problems I actually
want to focus on how we can address them
today and so I ask you do you value
diversity think about the people in your
life think about your friends think
about your workmates what kind of people
are they what I want us to understand
and what I think the fundamental change
that we need here isn’t is to understand
that these problems and these barriers
are not from within underrepresented
groups and minorities these are things
that we can change together these are
the ways that we treat each other and we
can change that we do it all the time I
don’t treat my family the way I treat my
friends the way I treat my workmates and
if I can give you an example from
engineering we used to have a huge
problem with safety in engineering I’ve
seen some ridiculous photos and
presentations and on the internet but
it’s something that we’ve addressed by
implementing strategies so we’ve had to
train people to see and address problems
and know how to
fuse safety incidents and this is
something that we have done for safety
developing this safety culture and it’s
something that we can do for being
inclusive as well and it takes effort
and it takes conscious thought and it
takes learning but that’s the world that
I want to live in I want to live in a
world where diversity is something that
we celebrate and wear equity isn’t
something that we even have to discuss
but a reality and wouldn’t you want to
be a part of that so I want you to think
about how diversity can be powerful
how can diversity help us with problem
solving if we have different experiences
if I’ve got a different experience to
you I’m going to respond to a situation
differently I’m going to see different
things and if we’ve got diversity we
have different perspectives we have
different ways of thinking and we can
look at problems from different angles
so if we have diversity of
representation we have diversity of
thought and we can reduce potential bias
and we can foster creativity and enable
innovation through problem-solving it’s
not just about these solutions and how
we find these solutions but it’s also
about the problems themselves and how do
we define which problems are worth
pursuing so for me my passion is
sustainability and I think that in
science technology engineering and
mathematics we have a huge
responsibility as far as expanding the
boundaries of what we know this
knowledge this learning it should be for
society our use and development of
technology it should be for humans it
should be about what people need but
when you know historically in stem
research and problem solving and
products and development all of those
things are defined by limited
demographics it’s not representative and
it can become this endemic culture which
makes it
so hard to think differently so if we
value diversity what are some initial
steps that we can take to address it I
want us to think first about workplaces
and if I can talk about just three
strategies I would say we need to look
at addressing harassment we need to look
at addressing hiring and promotion and
we need to look at flexibility and these
are just initial steps but these are
what we need to attain and sustained
diversity so step one and what I believe
is the most critical thing here is
harassment we often talk about in stem
how harassment is a huge issue and
diversity and a lack of diversity is a
massive problem how are we going to fix
it
seventy-five percent of the fastest
growing jobs are stem jobs so what are
we gonna do when the industries look the
way that they are it doesn’t matter how
many efforts you might make how many
awards you might give out how many
panels you might hold how many
discussions you’re going to give how
many talks it does not matter if you do
not address harassment it undermines all
efforts that you might make and if
people are not safe then they will leave
so what would you do if you or a
colleague experienced something that had
to be reported where would you go to or
who would you go to would you feel
comfortable going to them and what if
that person was involved where would you
go do you have any alternatives the
policies need to be clear and they need
to be accessible we need to have support
and information at the ready and we need
to enforce the policies so that
perpetrators of harassment don’t just
stay within the system are you doing
enough step two is about hiring and
promotion and often when we’re talking
about this the idea of meritocracy comes
up
a true meritocracy can’t exist while
systemic bias exists as it is in our
system we don’t have a meritocracy our
performance isn’t totally dictated by
merit if we want to build diverse teams
we’re gonna have to do it somehow and
this means like looking at the language
that we use and the channels where we
advertise this means having diverse
panels but also training those people to
check their bias and that might mean
having unconscious bias training or
improving it transparency and reviews
but these are all problems that we have
to address and so step three is about
flexibility in workplaces this is really
about things like job sharing and
part-time work HR policies to help
return to work
adequate parental leave people won’t
judge you for taking provisions for
child care and it’s not just about
families but also about those with
chronic health conditions for example
and if we have we want equity in the
workplace we need equity in domestic
responsibilities as well but three steps
is not enough what we need is an
inherent cultural change creating spaces
that encourage diversity and not just in
workplaces but in every opportunity and
I know that cultural change can sound so
abstract so let me give give you some
specific things that we can do to try
and make this happen it starts in your
everyday life be an ally this means
listening to the experiences of others
educating yourself providing support
where you can and particularly if you
are in a position of privilege you can
call out inappropriate language and
actions and your influence is actually
really important in terms of changing
mindsets observe group behavior and if
you can address problems like
monopolization in conversations or a
lack of comp
and allow everyone to voice their
thoughts you can normalize vulnerability
by sharing your failures and this
creates a space where we can have
discussions about issues like these and
they can actually be talked about and
not hidden raise awareness for
problematic and hostile behavior and
don’t let people get away with things
like racist and sexist jokes that might
seem harmless but really signal to those
who have prejudices that it’s okay to
discriminate against marginalized people
so I ask you please think about yourself
think about your privilege and this
might be age or gender or race or
ability or any of the other things we
mentioned today and in some spaces you
might have more privilege or less so
think about it often and be aware of it
and it’s okay to be privileged because
that means that you have power to make
change and it’s not easy but something I
deeply believe in is that if we believe
in something and we want to achieve
something we are powerful and we can
accomplish it together even if it’s just
doing the smaller things the simpler
ones just being more aware if we believe
and we can make a change so we need to
commit an action this and not just to
talk about it embracing diversity isn’t
always a clear path ahead but if we take
these steps and many more we can move
forward together
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
so today I want to talk about how we can
make a change I want to talk about how
we can improve our workplaces increase
innovation better our lives and
ourselves today I want to talk about
diversity and equity and being open
minded and building each other up and
not just for underrepresented groups and
minorities but for all of us as a
collective so that we can move forward
and make a real and valuable change
together so Who am I I am a queer half
Asian women in engineering studying how
we can build sustainable pharmaceutical
industries using alternative solvents
and I’m really grateful to be able to
speak to you today because I believe
that we can make a change and move past
the historical status quos that have
defined us so in my workplace as a PhD
candidate I think that we’re incredibly
diverse we actually have a lot of
different ages and backgrounds different
sexualities and we come from all over
the world but if you look at other
places within the university or if you
look higher up it’s not the same but
does this actually even matter is this a
problem often when we’re talking about
diversity in science technology
engineering and mathematics or stem
we’re talking about the women in stem
problem but diversity goes beyond that
it’s not just about gender of course we
have inequities in stem and more widely
in society but diversity is about all
genders all sexualities all abilities
age those with different cultural
backgrounds sexualities those with
mental illness diversity is about
difference but it’s about what brings us
together
and when I’m talking about diversity I’m
talking about who we are so often when
we’re talking about this lack of
diversity we’re talking about what
underrepresented people and minorities
can do about it we say they should
pursue certain careers or that they
should adapt in certain ways to succeed
but the problem is actually systemic we
should value diversity we know that
diverse teams perform better so what is
the problem why is this a thing that we
have to worry about there are a number
of barriers that are holding us back and
so if I can just tell you about a few of
the most critical ones I would say that
these are harassment discrimination with
deep roots in history resulting in
conscious and unconscious bias
stereotyping accessibility and a lack of
flexibility in workplaces so instead of
talking about the problems I actually
want to focus on how we can address them
today and so I ask you do you value
diversity think about the people in your
life think about your friends think
about your workmates what kind of people
are they what I want us to understand
and what I think the fundamental change
that we need here isn’t is to understand
that these problems and these barriers
are not from within underrepresented
groups and minorities these are things
that we can change together these are
the ways that we treat each other and we
can change that we do it all the time I
don’t treat my family the way I treat my
friends the way I treat my workmates and
if I can give you an example from
engineering we used to have a huge
problem with safety in engineering I’ve
seen some ridiculous photos and
presentations and on the internet but
it’s something that we’ve addressed by
implementing strategies so we’ve had to
train people to see and address problems
and know how to
fuse safety incidents and this is
something that we have done for safety
developing this safety culture and it’s
something that we can do for being
inclusive as well and it takes effort
and it takes conscious thought and it
takes learning but that’s the world that
I want to live in I want to live in a
world where diversity is something that
we celebrate and wear equity isn’t
something that we even have to discuss
but a reality and wouldn’t you want to
be a part of that so I want you to think
about how diversity can be powerful
how can diversity help us with problem
solving if we have different experiences
if I’ve got a different experience to
you I’m going to respond to a situation
differently I’m going to see different
things and if we’ve got diversity we
have different perspectives we have
different ways of thinking and we can
look at problems from different angles
so if we have diversity of
representation we have diversity of
thought and we can reduce potential bias
and we can foster creativity and enable
innovation through problem-solving it’s
not just about these solutions and how
we find these solutions but it’s also
about the problems themselves and how do
we define which problems are worth
pursuing so for me my passion is
sustainability and I think that in
science technology engineering and
mathematics we have a huge
responsibility as far as expanding the
boundaries of what we know this
knowledge this learning it should be for
society our use and development of
technology it should be for humans it
should be about what people need but
when you know historically in stem
research and problem solving and
products and development all of those
things are defined by limited
demographics it’s not representative and
it can become this endemic culture which
makes it
so hard to think differently so if we
value diversity what are some initial
steps that we can take to address it I
want us to think first about workplaces
and if I can talk about just three
strategies I would say we need to look
at addressing harassment we need to look
at addressing hiring and promotion and
we need to look at flexibility and these
are just initial steps but these are
what we need to attain and sustained
diversity so step one and what I believe
is the most critical thing here is
harassment we often talk about in stem
how harassment is a huge issue and
diversity and a lack of diversity is a
massive problem how are we going to fix
it
seventy-five percent of the fastest
growing jobs are stem jobs so what are
we gonna do when the industries look the
way that they are it doesn’t matter how
many efforts you might make how many
awards you might give out how many
panels you might hold how many
discussions you’re going to give how
many talks it does not matter if you do
not address harassment it undermines all
efforts that you might make and if
people are not safe then they will leave
so what would you do if you or a
colleague experienced something that had
to be reported where would you go to or
who would you go to would you feel
comfortable going to them and what if
that person was involved where would you
go do you have any alternatives the
policies need to be clear and they need
to be accessible we need to have support
and information at the ready and we need
to enforce the policies so that
perpetrators of harassment don’t just
stay within the system are you doing
enough step two is about hiring and
promotion and often when we’re talking
about this the idea of meritocracy comes
up
a true meritocracy can’t exist while
systemic bias exists as it is in our
system we don’t have a meritocracy our
performance isn’t totally dictated by
merit if we want to build diverse teams
we’re gonna have to do it somehow and
this means like looking at the language
that we use and the channels where we
advertise this means having diverse
panels but also training those people to
check their bias and that might mean
having unconscious bias training or
improving it transparency and reviews
but these are all problems that we have
to address and so step three is about
flexibility in workplaces this is really
about things like job sharing and
part-time work HR policies to help
return to work
adequate parental leave people won’t
judge you for taking provisions for
child care and it’s not just about
families but also about those with
chronic health conditions for example
and if we have we want equity in the
workplace we need equity in domestic
responsibilities as well but three steps
is not enough what we need is an
inherent cultural change creating spaces
that encourage diversity and not just in
workplaces but in every opportunity and
I know that cultural change can sound so
abstract so let me give give you some
specific things that we can do to try
and make this happen it starts in your
everyday life be an ally this means
listening to the experiences of others
educating yourself providing support
where you can and particularly if you
are in a position of privilege you can
call out inappropriate language and
actions and your influence is actually
really important in terms of changing
mindsets observe group behavior and if
you can address problems like
monopolization in conversations or a
lack of comp
and allow everyone to voice their
thoughts you can normalize vulnerability
by sharing your failures and this
creates a space where we can have
discussions about issues like these and
they can actually be talked about and
not hidden raise awareness for
problematic and hostile behavior and
don’t let people get away with things
like racist and sexist jokes that might
seem harmless but really signal to those
who have prejudices that it’s okay to
discriminate against marginalized people
so I ask you please think about yourself
think about your privilege and this
might be age or gender or race or
ability or any of the other things we
mentioned today and in some spaces you
might have more privilege or less so
think about it often and be aware of it
and it’s okay to be privileged because
that means that you have power to make
change and it’s not easy but something I
deeply believe in is that if we believe
in something and we want to achieve
something we are powerful and we can
accomplish it together even if it’s just
doing the smaller things the simpler
ones just being more aware if we believe
and we can make a change so we need to
commit an action this and not just to
talk about it embracing diversity isn’t
always a clear path ahead but if we take
these steps and many more we can move
forward together
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
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