team, please celebrate the aggression a bit more
#InThisTogether, Candi
*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•by your best friend erin griffith•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•
Buddies, here’s something I’ve been thinking about this week. Did you know that
52 companies in the Fortune 500, or 10.4%, have women CEOs?
That funding for start-ups founded solely by women represents just 2% of the hundreds of billions flowing into start-ups?
That that miserable 2% stat that has not budged in several years?
That 57% of women founders say they have been discriminated against?
That 42% of women working in tech say they have experienced harassment?
That at the current rate, it will take us 131 years to close the economic gender gap?
These and other such stats popped into my head this week when I heard the CEO of the 7th most valuable company in the world say that most companies were “culturally neutered” and needed more “masculine energy.” It’s good if a company culture “celebrates the aggression a bit more,” he said.
The tech industry has never been an especially welcoming place for women. For awhile, companies DN really GAF. Then around the time of a very public and embarrassing discrimination trial, they started admit it was a problem.
Some of them might have actually cared about the underlying issue of fairness and equality, who knows. But more importantly, a lack of diversity was a business risk. It could lead to blind spots. A homogenous, like-minded group of people building tech products may not anticipate all the ways their product could cause harm to other groups of people, lose trust with users, and turn into PR nightmares. For awhile tech leaders made various noises about trying to work on the diversity problem.
That effort even had its own feminist icon. She was the No. 2 executive at the 7th most valuable company in the world and is credited with much of the company’s early business success. She encouraged other women to “lean in” to their careers. Unlike top female tech execs who came before her, she expressed her feminine side and did not pretend to be one of the guys in order to get ahead. She is no longer at the 7th most valuable company in the world.
This week, while encouraging companies to be super manly, the CEO of the 7th most valuable company in the world cancelled his company’s programs to hire more women and other underrepresented people and help them be successful there.
Shortly after, the world’s 5th largest company made a similar move. The memo that went out about that one had quite a sign-off:
#InThisTogether,
Candi
You know, Candi’s not wrong. Whatever this is, we sure are stuck in it together!
Important Business Matters
Startup everyone’s into: Watch Duty.
Startup everyone’s over: Tiktok doomed?
Reason to go on living: Buying Greenland would only cost $12.5bn?? That’s less than it would cost to buy, say, OpenSea or Grammarly.
Reason to take up residence under your weighted blanket: Whew, this story about FB tampon bathroom thing… The abortion thing…
Children’s book as a business headline: Fubo, Hulu, Venu and the Missing Skinny Bundle.
Latest heartbreak: Just all if it in LA. (Some places to donate: Pasadena Humane. GoFundMe hub. Charity for the families of fallen firefighters.
Latest saga: The WordPress drama won’t quit.
Latest thing the kids are into: Selling job referrals on an underground market.
Latest thing the olds are into: Wildfire misinfo.
a dall-e summary of this newsletter:
“celebrate aggussion at all costs“
*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•the end•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•
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As of 2023.