industry has spent 1.2 billion dollars
and trying to solve one problem not on
self-driving cars not on uber is
reputation maybe maybe not on whether or
not to delete Trump’s Twitter account
they spent 1.2 billion dollars and
trying to solve diversity and technology
we’ve all seen the stories in the news
like this and in five years not much has
changed in fact this recent study says
things are actually getting worse so how
are we going to solve this problem we
all know it’s good for the bottom line
we know it’s not good for innovation and
we know it’s not good for our country
but don’t worry I have the answer and
it’s one word lesbians lesbians always
have the answer it’s true even BuzzFeed
agrees they said if tech were more like
lesbians who tech technology would be a
better place and it’s because we’ve
created a community of over 30,000 queer
women and the people who love them we’ve
created a diverse culture and community
one where women can build rocket ships
cure cancer and they can also hula hoop
and give high-fives all day long in fact
we love hi-5 so much and want you to
turn to your neighbor give them a
high-five feels good I promise
right congratulations you are now
officially a part of a lesbian – tech
it’s that easy we’ve already solved
diversity before I started lesbians to
attack I grew up in a fairly
conservative home very religious
actually thought all gay people lived in
San Francisco which is even funnier
because not too long after I realized I
was gay I in fact did move to San
Francisco to work for an LGBT
organization that was fighting for
marriage equality in California and it
was there I fell in love with data and
the power of Technology I taught myself
how to build online fundraising tools
and up raising millions of dollars but
it’s also where I realized that women
were missing we were missing from the
conversation we were missing from from
the tables where decisions were being
made even though LGBTQ women represent
50% of the population our power did not
reflect that and every LGBT event I went
to looked a lot like this and then years
later I started my own technology
company and every single event looked
like this and I started to wonder do
lesbians in tech actually exist
I wasn’t sure because everywhere I
turned lesbian spaces were dying bars
were closing publications were going out
of business every gay neighborhood in
America is catering mostly to gay men
and if you think about it from an
economic perspective it makes a lot of
sense
sadly women still make less than men so
when you put two women together versus
two gay men
we’re actually opposite ends of the
economic spectrum and this is obviously
more stark for people of color and the
transgender community and it was my time
working in San Francisco that I realized
the most single important lesson of my
life there are only two ways that you
can show up in this world and that’s
with your time and your money and your
money is a lot more scalable and I made
a decision at that moment that I wanted
to be a lesbian who had a voice who had
a seat at the table I wanted to be a
career woman who wasn’t afraid to use
both my time and money to create the
world I wanted to live in and let me be
clear I want to live in a world where
women make more money than men
I want to live in a world where no one
can lose their job because their
sexuality or gender identity I want to
live in a world where Chan’s gender
where Congress actually reflects the
people that live in this country where
10 page papers arguing the gender gap
exists because women are more neurotic
and have a lower stress tolerance than
men do not exist and I want to live in a
world where there is a black lesbian
president ensure we’re talking about
diversity in tech but our industry is a
microcosm and a reflection of the
greater society so how are we gonna
solve this problem I think we have to do
things 10% differently and I told you
lesbians have answer so here’s how we
did it lesbians you tack lesson number
one we have to show up I know this
sounds simple but we have to show up for
the things that we care about we have to
show with both our time and our money
even if it means showing up to spaces
that are uncomfortable one of our
executives told me you know Lee Ann I
love lesbians to tak because everyone
there is slightly uncomfortable it’s not
often that I share spaces queer spaces
with my co-workers people I manage my
boss and I realized it’s that tinge of
difference that allows us to let our
guard down
maybe laugh a little more and really
connect with the people around us and
it’s in those moments that learning
happens learning that leads to change
leaves to shifting hearts and minds and
ultimate leads to culture change or when
Marc Benioff the CEO of sales for showed
up I got so many emails from employees
who said I cannot tell you how much it
means to me to have my CEO show up for
who I really am one of my favorites ways
to show up is to give first a few years
ago the White House the Obama White
House emailed and said will you help us
put on
gbt cue tech and innovation summit i’ve
course said yes and one of the first
things I did was email Megan Smith who
was a VP at Google at the time and I
asked her to speak she said yes and it
was there at that event that she got
recruited to be the chief technology
officer of the United States the White
House gave first and out of it they got
a more than qualified candidate step two
I do not believe we can solve this
problem fast enough or at all without
implementing quotas because what it’s
measured is more likely to get done
period the first year of lesbians who
tech we didn’t see the representation
among women of color that we wanted to
so I implemented a quota 50% women of
color and guess what ever since then
every summit we’ve had has been 50
percent women of color and sure it’s
meant having some awkward conversations
with very important white women who
really wanted to speak or with companies
who said what Leanne we can’t find any
women of color speakers I said try
harder it’s in those moments well
slightly uncomfortable that change
happens since then we’ve implemented two
new quotas 10% transgender and gender
non-conforming 20% black and Latina and
again we’ve been able to do that ever
since we implemented those quotas and
make no mistake the second I stopped
focusing on this with intention
measuring that attention with data it
starts to drop because things don’t
magically change that’s not how the
world works things only change when we
create urgency and quotas create that
urgency for example it’s gonna take
another 170 years for women to reach pay
equity with men at our current rate what
if we implement quotas because I don’t
know about you but I don’t have 170
years to wait the realities we live in a
sexist racist and anti LGBT queue world
it’s all around us
we can actually never fully remove our
bias no matter how many unconscious bias
trainings we take which is why we have
to fight it every single day and quotas
help us do that and sadly the world is
not fair it’s really not fair today we
can predict how much money you will make
over the course of your lifetime with
almost exact accurate
see based on the zip code that you were
born in does that sound fair Silicon
Valley loves to pretend that we live in
this meritocracy but if that’s true
that’s not the world that I want to live
in I tell them often you know just
because we love hoodies and jeans
doesn’t mean that we live in this fair
world and quotas do not lower the
standard a few countries like Norway in
Spain have started to implement the
number of women on corporate boards and
what they’ve seen is that not only does
lesbians who tech over the last five
years has not only been able to hit 50
percent women of color speakers but we
cut because we’ve been able to hit so
much trust in our community we’ve been
able to have 40 percent color women of
color attendees there’s no way we would
have done this without quotas without
tracking them with data and thinking
about representation from the very
beginning which brings me and on my next
point it’s so important to think about
representation from the beginning
nothing matters more than your founding
team or a first few hires it affects
your culture it affects the type of
people you attract to work at your
company it affects the very product that
you were building so before you start a
company with your four best friends who
happen to be white and all went to the
same school ask yourself is this the
right leadership team do we reflect the
people who will be using our products we
have to start thinking about this 10%
differently even though technology is
about innovation and risk pushing our
limits hiring is actually about the
opposite it’s about eliminating the risk
and tech companies have decided the
safest way to hire is through direct
referrals and hiring from the same five
schools that every other tech company
hires from and assuming that we can’t
change this hiring practice how can we
scale access to direct referrals outside
of our own bias networks I believe in
this idea so much that we actually built
a tool called include and it actually
connects underrepresented technologists
with mentors who can validate their
skills ultimately giving them access to
that direct referral they need to get
the job they deserve so companies can
build their best team
this is especially important we’re
thinking about non-traditional talent
which is the future right now 60% of all
technical people in this country are
getting their education through online
courses and coding boot camps but
there’s so much bias for people who do
not have computer science degrees and
when you’re thinking about
representation I want you to think about
it from an intersectional approach what
I’m about to say might blow your mind
lesbians are women you’d be surprised
how many conversations I had in the very
beginning they said Leanne you know we
love what you’re doing but right now
we’re focused on increasing women in
tech I said this is going to be awkward
for a second
but lesbians are women we’re also women
of color
we’re transgender women were veterans
were mothers people have so many
identities the last step we have to
question our assumptions we can’t just
keep blaming pipeline when I started
less being attacked by a hundred percent
thought it would fail because I when I
looked around there weren’t any career
women but it’s not because there wasn’t
pipeline and it’s not because we didn’t
exist it’s because we weren’t providing
the right type of value the value of the
LGBTQ women wanted so before you blame
pipeline ask yourself have we tried to
do things differently are we offering
incentives for diverse talent have we
implemented quotas have we made this an
urgent enough problem at our company
have we Hut tried to hire outside of San
Francisco in New York because American
talent lives everywhere coal miner is
actually teaching themselves how to code
in Kentucky what if we hired from
Kentucky what if we opened offices in
Kentucky or the middle of the country I
want to be clear even though diversity
is very important this is about more
than diversity because right now the
average tech salary is almost three
times the average American salary this
is about more than diversity this is
about including everyone including all
Americans this is about economic
opportunity for everyone think about how
this can change only one
but a family a community how we can
solve this problem in our country
because this isn’t just about making an
industry more successful although it
will this is about making our country
the best that we can be so who’s gonna
solve this billion-dollar problem who’s
gonna be the first company to do it
Google are you gonna make diversity a
moonshot Amazon are you going to
implement a hiring quota when you move
HQ to to Washington DC Facebook instead
of one person of color on a board
why not implement a quota 50% women and
people of color when I look back at how
lesbians Jack has been so successful
it’s not rocket science we’ve just done
things 10% differently what if we’re
just 10% away from solving this
billion-dollar problem whatever just 10%
away from a world where there can be a
black lesbian president thank you [Applause]