I call "foul" on any company positioning themselves as "innovative", "leading", "exciting", "engaging", yada, yada, yada, but less than 5 percent of their employees (in any role, but zero in leadership roles) are women.
Recently, I was talking to a friend about a fairly new company in Portland doing some really exciting things in the digital/mobile arena. I pulled up their website to show her a bit of their portfolio and as we perused it, we landed on the Company page. Of 36 employees, two were women. TWO!
Really? Reeaa-llly? You couldn't find any innovative, leading, engaging women to join your organization?
I was stunned and haven't stopped thinking about it since. Are women not stepping up to join these organizations or are the organizations overlooking talented women? Is there something in the Portland marketplace that encourages men to tackle innovation, but not women? Is it a consequence of an "all who you know" job market (a whole other rant and one that has my husband ready to pull up stakes to move back to Australia claiming they're a meritocracy, but I'll save that for another day). It put me in a snit.
Then, a couple days ago, the company that got my snit going was all over the news. They acquired another, equally innovative and engaging company based in San Francisco. Curious, I checked out the new acquisition's employees ... 17 employees ... one woman.
I have no doubt the men hired by these companies earned their positions ... that they are talented and very qualified. I still wonder why no equally talented and qualified women didn't make the cut.
I know there are lots of reasons and factors and variables. And it's complicated. I just expected better.
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