I have a daughter you already warned
that she’s very cute obviously she is
she is three and a half and she is
strong and smart and capable I may be
biased but I think that she is made of
all the good things in this world when I
found out that I would be a mother to a
daughter I read an excessive number of
books and articles about how to raise a
strong successful woman in our society
and they all had a similar theme to
raise a strong successful woman in our
society you as a parent are tasked with
building her confidence and showing her
that she can do and accomplish just as
much as her male counterparts the ways
to do this are slightly less clear but
they include things like positive
affirmations early and often an exposure
to a variety of women leaders and
allowing your daughter to fail while
simultaneously reminding her that she’s
capable of succeeding this is no easy
task but so far so good
my daughter is told every day that she
is strong and smart and capable and she
is sure to remind us if we forget we
read books about women leaders and we
talk about all of the things that she
can be when she grows up but she is only
three and one day on the playground or
in the classroom or at work someone will
tell her that she can’t and I will not
be there to remind her of her worth I
can only hope that she is able to remind
herself being a mother to a daughter has
resulted in a lot of self-reflection
both personally and professionally
one of the things I think about in my
work with diversity in the workplace are
those books and articles I read
in preparation for my daughter’s arrival
themes of confidence and knowing your
worth and in those moments I can’t help
but wonder when was the last time I told
myself that I was strong and smart and
capable and when was the last time I
told other women I work with of the same
today women earn 80 cents for every
dollar a man makes and comprise slightly
less than 5% of CEO positions in Fortune
500 companies are you surprised probably
not this information is not new we’ve
been exposing the wage gap on t-shirts
creating hashtags and supporting
nonprofits all to ensure that this issue
remains at the forefront of the gender
equality debate the causes of these
discrepancies are multifaceted
they include things like unconscious
behaviors company culture access to
resources and corporate policies in
response businesses are making changes
diversity trainings are becoming more
common and policies are being reviewed
organizations across the country are
starting to recognize that a diverse
executive board results in unique and
creative thoughts and ideas but we’re
missing something something that these
programs cannot address unconscious bias
is a social stereotype or preconceived
notion about a particular group of
people and we all have them messages
that we receive throughout our lives
through a variety of mediums result in
these messages that are often so deeply
rooted in our unconscious that they
inadvertently affect our actions and
decisions one illustration of these
messages that children receive through
some books and movies have a plot that
pretty much always go like this you have
a woman depicted as a
who finds herself in some terrible
predicament she’s locked in some tower
somewhere or she’s ingested some sort of
poison and because of her inability she
cannot remove herself from that
situation but lucky for her a man comes
along normally depicted as a prince who
saves her from this terrible situation
one that she would have remained in
indefinitely if it weren’t for him they
go on to live happily ever after
although happily ever after is rarely
well defined the message that children
may receive through these types of books
and movies are that women are incapable
while men are capable for example when
children as young as six years old are
shown a picture of a man and a woman and
are asked which picture they think
represents the person that would be
smarter a majority of the children
choose the male photo when children just
one year younger at five years of age
are shown the same photo and asked the
same question a majority of the children
choose the photo that represents their
own gender boys choose the picture of
the man and girls choose the picture of
the woman so what this tells us is that
in one year’s time between the ages of
five and six little girls are deciding
through these messages they’re receiving
through a variety of mediums that men
are smarter than women
this is unconscious bias unconscious
bias trainings are a response to these
biases while they vary they typically
walk participants through some basic
steps first acknowledge the biases exist
recognize your own biases think about
how these biases affect your actions and
decisions and come up with a plan on how
you’ll question these biases in the
future when we talk about unconscious
bias we typically focus outward
on how we view others phrases like those
people have diversity leaders like
myself screaming biases but what about
the n-word internal bias women today
rate themselves lower on self
performance evaluations than men of
equal performance conflict avoidant
managers those that would prefer to not
have difficult conversations with their
employees affirm these overly critical
or overly confident assessments simply
by giving employees the same performance
rating they gave themselves resulting in
a lower mirror increase for women a
widening of the wage gap women apply to
positions only when they meet a hundred
percent of the qualifications while men
apply to the same roles when they meet
as little as sixty percent of the
qualifications directly impacting a
woman’s ability to advance in her career
and when women do change roles they
negotiate their salaries significantly
less in fact men initiate negotiations
four times more than women and when
women do negotiate they ask for 30% less
on average than men this lack of initial
negotiation is said to account for a
$50,000 wage difference by the age of 60
now I don’t know why every woman doesn’t
negotiate in the same way that men do
but I do know why I haven’t a fear a
fear of being perceived as too
aggressive and unapproachable abrasive
and brash there is it other women in
this room a relate to words that are
typically only used to describe women
fears that carry over into our working
life resulting in women speaking less in
meetings than men and claiming our ideas
as our own less often when women move
into management positions their female
employees are harder on them almost half
of women would just prefer a male
boss with only a quarter preferring a
female boss while a majority of men
don’t care either way
women rate their female bosses lower
than their male bosses regardless of
similarities in management style and
women are just as tough on their female
employees giving more negative critical
feedback about their personalities than
the men that report to them these
messages that we’ve received throughout
our lives through a variety of mediums
have resulted in a deeply rooted
unconscious bias about ourselves we
project these biases on other women
around us so what now let’s go back to
the beginning acknowledge that these
biases do exist recognize your own
biases think about how these biases have
affected your actions and decisions how
did you respond to your most recent
performance evaluation did you apply to
that promotion and come up with a plan
on how you’ll question these biases in
the future what will you do differently
at home and at work we wear t-shirts and
hash tag and support nonprofits but we
continue to stunt our own growth simply
by forgetting what we knew at 3 years
old that we are strong and smart and
capable what would happen if we reminded
ourselves every day and told others when
they forgot to the business and
diversity leaders the work within our
organizations is important it is
necessary and it must continue while we
have taken steps in the right direction
we still have much ground to cover to
the advocates fighting for equal pay for
equal work I commend you and I challenge
you let’s not forget
about ourselves thank you
[Applause]
that she’s very cute obviously she is
she is three and a half and she is
strong and smart and capable I may be
biased but I think that she is made of
all the good things in this world when I
found out that I would be a mother to a
daughter I read an excessive number of
books and articles about how to raise a
strong successful woman in our society
and they all had a similar theme to
raise a strong successful woman in our
society you as a parent are tasked with
building her confidence and showing her
that she can do and accomplish just as
much as her male counterparts the ways
to do this are slightly less clear but
they include things like positive
affirmations early and often an exposure
to a variety of women leaders and
allowing your daughter to fail while
simultaneously reminding her that she’s
capable of succeeding this is no easy
task but so far so good
my daughter is told every day that she
is strong and smart and capable and she
is sure to remind us if we forget we
read books about women leaders and we
talk about all of the things that she
can be when she grows up but she is only
three and one day on the playground or
in the classroom or at work someone will
tell her that she can’t and I will not
be there to remind her of her worth I
can only hope that she is able to remind
herself being a mother to a daughter has
resulted in a lot of self-reflection
both personally and professionally
one of the things I think about in my
work with diversity in the workplace are
those books and articles I read
in preparation for my daughter’s arrival
themes of confidence and knowing your
worth and in those moments I can’t help
but wonder when was the last time I told
myself that I was strong and smart and
capable and when was the last time I
told other women I work with of the same
today women earn 80 cents for every
dollar a man makes and comprise slightly
less than 5% of CEO positions in Fortune
500 companies are you surprised probably
not this information is not new we’ve
been exposing the wage gap on t-shirts
creating hashtags and supporting
nonprofits all to ensure that this issue
remains at the forefront of the gender
equality debate the causes of these
discrepancies are multifaceted
they include things like unconscious
behaviors company culture access to
resources and corporate policies in
response businesses are making changes
diversity trainings are becoming more
common and policies are being reviewed
organizations across the country are
starting to recognize that a diverse
executive board results in unique and
creative thoughts and ideas but we’re
missing something something that these
programs cannot address unconscious bias
is a social stereotype or preconceived
notion about a particular group of
people and we all have them messages
that we receive throughout our lives
through a variety of mediums result in
these messages that are often so deeply
rooted in our unconscious that they
inadvertently affect our actions and
decisions one illustration of these
messages that children receive through
some books and movies have a plot that
pretty much always go like this you have
a woman depicted as a
who finds herself in some terrible
predicament she’s locked in some tower
somewhere or she’s ingested some sort of
poison and because of her inability she
cannot remove herself from that
situation but lucky for her a man comes
along normally depicted as a prince who
saves her from this terrible situation
one that she would have remained in
indefinitely if it weren’t for him they
go on to live happily ever after
although happily ever after is rarely
well defined the message that children
may receive through these types of books
and movies are that women are incapable
while men are capable for example when
children as young as six years old are
shown a picture of a man and a woman and
are asked which picture they think
represents the person that would be
smarter a majority of the children
choose the male photo when children just
one year younger at five years of age
are shown the same photo and asked the
same question a majority of the children
choose the photo that represents their
own gender boys choose the picture of
the man and girls choose the picture of
the woman so what this tells us is that
in one year’s time between the ages of
five and six little girls are deciding
through these messages they’re receiving
through a variety of mediums that men
are smarter than women
this is unconscious bias unconscious
bias trainings are a response to these
biases while they vary they typically
walk participants through some basic
steps first acknowledge the biases exist
recognize your own biases think about
how these biases affect your actions and
decisions and come up with a plan on how
you’ll question these biases in the
future when we talk about unconscious
bias we typically focus outward
on how we view others phrases like those
people have diversity leaders like
myself screaming biases but what about
the n-word internal bias women today
rate themselves lower on self
performance evaluations than men of
equal performance conflict avoidant
managers those that would prefer to not
have difficult conversations with their
employees affirm these overly critical
or overly confident assessments simply
by giving employees the same performance
rating they gave themselves resulting in
a lower mirror increase for women a
widening of the wage gap women apply to
positions only when they meet a hundred
percent of the qualifications while men
apply to the same roles when they meet
as little as sixty percent of the
qualifications directly impacting a
woman’s ability to advance in her career
and when women do change roles they
negotiate their salaries significantly
less in fact men initiate negotiations
four times more than women and when
women do negotiate they ask for 30% less
on average than men this lack of initial
negotiation is said to account for a
$50,000 wage difference by the age of 60
now I don’t know why every woman doesn’t
negotiate in the same way that men do
but I do know why I haven’t a fear a
fear of being perceived as too
aggressive and unapproachable abrasive
and brash there is it other women in
this room a relate to words that are
typically only used to describe women
fears that carry over into our working
life resulting in women speaking less in
meetings than men and claiming our ideas
as our own less often when women move
into management positions their female
employees are harder on them almost half
of women would just prefer a male
boss with only a quarter preferring a
female boss while a majority of men
don’t care either way
women rate their female bosses lower
than their male bosses regardless of
similarities in management style and
women are just as tough on their female
employees giving more negative critical
feedback about their personalities than
the men that report to them these
messages that we’ve received throughout
our lives through a variety of mediums
have resulted in a deeply rooted
unconscious bias about ourselves we
project these biases on other women
around us so what now let’s go back to
the beginning acknowledge that these
biases do exist recognize your own
biases think about how these biases have
affected your actions and decisions how
did you respond to your most recent
performance evaluation did you apply to
that promotion and come up with a plan
on how you’ll question these biases in
the future what will you do differently
at home and at work we wear t-shirts and
hash tag and support nonprofits but we
continue to stunt our own growth simply
by forgetting what we knew at 3 years
old that we are strong and smart and
capable what would happen if we reminded
ourselves every day and told others when
they forgot to the business and
diversity leaders the work within our
organizations is important it is
necessary and it must continue while we
have taken steps in the right direction
we still have much ground to cover to
the advocates fighting for equal pay for
equal work I commend you and I challenge
you let’s not forget
about ourselves thank you
[Applause]
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