Something Has Changed In Corporate America

Last week, I was facilitating a breakfast at a “Women in Tech” event as part of the Techweek Chicago. As I walked back to my office, a thought struck my mind…  “Something has changed in Corporate America”.

• Women groups are gradually but definitely establishing a presence in corporate America. At the breakfast, it was refreshing to see a young summer intern talk about her positive experience in a mostly male startup!
• A board member of a leading tech firm, Uber, is ousted from his role for making an ill-timed joke about women. This is after the CEO has already been ousted for allowing a toxic, sexist culture at Uber.
• A VC behaves inappropriately towards women, and a Silicon Valley billionaire, Reid Hoffman, immediately pens a note on LinkedIn denouncing that. VCs rally around a 'decency pledge'!
• A leading tech organization, Salesforce, no longer talks about “diversity”. Instead Salesforce talks about “equality”.
• Organizations publish their diversity metrics openly on their websites. See Salesforce, Microsoft, Intel. Bloomberg launches a Financial Services Gender-Equality Index, with statistics on gender diversity for 52 global financial firms. Transparency is becoming the norm.

So, what has changed?

Solidarity amongst women – Women are supporting women – not competing amongst themselves. LEANING IN is real! Women’s groups transcend organizations, industries and geographies. There are women’s groups for everyone – “Women in tech”, “Women in finance”, “Women business owners”, “Asian women” – you name it. Ariana Huffington’s comment "There's a lot of data that shows when there's one woman on the board, it's much more likely that there will be a second woman on the board," is indeed apt.

Amplification – Today every sound can find a quick echo. Social media is creating unstoppable waves of change. A blog on sexual harassment in Uber is read by millions. Reactions are widespread & immediate.

Deliberate Solutions – Organizations are moving from run of the mill solutions like “mentoring” programs to data driven, thoughtful, impactful solutions. Academia, and minds from leading corporates are joining hands to analyze data & develop the most effective solutions for gender equality. See a video by a Harvard professor, Iris Bohnet, that I recently posted and you will understand my point.

The winds of change are unmistakable. What led to these changes? The answers are not clear to me. Are the changes just a natural evolution of women in business, or are they a result of the fact that in nearly 40% of households with children, women are the sole or primary bread winner? Maybe Sheryl Sandberg’s LEAN IN movement was a huge catalyst. Or maybe Hillary’s win as a presidential candidate provided the necessary boost.

It is hard to say why. But one thing is clear … it is time to pause, reflect, recognize and celebrate the fact that “Something has changed in Corporate America”. The journey is still long and hard, but it will continue!!