4 ms·

What I find really disconcerting is that the senior leaders in the tech industry have been talking for years about increasing gender inclusivity. Yet very few m

What I find really disconcerting is that the senior leaders in the tech industry have been talking for years about increasing gender inclusivity. Yet very few major tech companies seem to be wholeheartedly embracing full remote, despite it being by far the most effective way to encourage more women to join the industry. Research shows that women are 50% more likely to prefer full remote than men[1]. For better or worse, much more of the burden of childcare falls on mothers in our society.[2] Women are also much more likely to sacrifice their own careers to relocate for a spouse's career.[3] Along similar lines, that tends to mean women prefer careers with geographic flexibility.[4] Tech companies have spent the past decade sprouting platitudes about creating a more welcoming workplace for women. Now they actually have a real opportunity to make a difference. Transitioning to a remote first model would massively improve gender inclusivity. Yet, despite widespread employee satisfaction with remote, senior management in most places seem to be pushing back as hard as possible. [1]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-01/americans-are-done-with-5-days-a-week-in-the-office-here-s-what-that-means-for-the-economy?srnd=premium https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-01/americans... [2]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4131769/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4131769/ [3]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/11/28/why-couples-move-for-a-mans-job-but-not-a-womans/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/11/28/why-c... [4]https://science.sciencemag.org/content/205/4412/1225.abstract https://science.sciencemag.org/content/205/4412/1225.abstrac...

bpodgursky 5y ago
"Gender inclusivity" at tech companies is really a completely different axis than "motherhood or fatherhood friendly". "Parent" is not a protected class (at least, not on Twitter), and it's really not the goal of any FAANG company to encourage their workers to have families. It requires much harder tradeoffs than being "gender diverse".
- swiley 5y ago
  > it's really not the goal of any FAANG company to encourage their workers to have families. Something that for one reason or another is more popular among younger women than men. This excludes women whether they want to admit it or not.
  - biztos 5y ago
    It also seems really self-defeating. Talent attrition is a major problem at any company, and people with kids are way more likely to stick around in their nice comfy jobs, regardless of their gender.
    - disgruntledphd2 5y ago
      Yeah, this is why all the major SV companies give decent paternity/maternity even where not required by law. It's a really cheap way of getting your experienced/older employees to stick around. Having left my FAANG a few years back, the only benefit that I actually miss is the paternity (even though I never had it when I was there).
- e12e 5y ago
  I think one way to look at the inability/unwillingness for FAANG companies to have any reasonable parental leave policy, is that it's the kind of thing that needs to be regulated by (federal) law. Looking from Norway, it's rediculus to see companies not managing to give a year of parental leave, or something simple like on-campus child care.
  - bpodgursky 5y ago
    I mean, a year of employer-paid leave is frankly ridiculous. There needs to be federal support for that kind of benefit. It's not really the parental leave policies (which are often generous). It's the environment around WFH policies and setting up viable career paths for part-time work which is lacking. Ex, if a woman wants to work 20 hours a week instead of being a full-time worker with small children, none of the FAANGs to my knowledge offer a career path that looks like that.
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  > "Parent" is not a protected class Many states make familial status a protected class in employment, and the FMLA also makes discriminating based on certain family-based factors illegal.

bpodgursky 5y ago

"Gender inclusivity" at tech companies is really a completely different axis than "motherhood or fatherhood friendly". "Parent" is not a protected class (at least, not on Twitter), and it's really not the goal of any FAANG company to encourage their workers to have families. It requires much harder tradeoffs than being "gender diverse".

swiley 5y ago
> it's really not the goal of any FAANG company to encourage their workers to have families. Something that for one reason or another is more popular among younger women than men. This excludes women whether they want to admit it or not.
- biztos 5y ago
  It also seems really self-defeating. Talent attrition is a major problem at any company, and people with kids are way more likely to stick around in their nice comfy jobs, regardless of their gender.
  - disgruntledphd2 5y ago
    Yeah, this is why all the major SV companies give decent paternity/maternity even where not required by law. It's a really cheap way of getting your experienced/older employees to stick around. Having left my FAANG a few years back, the only benefit that I actually miss is the paternity (even though I never had it when I was there).
e12e 5y ago
I think one way to look at the inability/unwillingness for FAANG companies to have any reasonable parental leave policy, is that it's the kind of thing that needs to be regulated by (federal) law. Looking from Norway, it's rediculus to see companies not managing to give a year of parental leave, or something simple like on-campus child care.
- bpodgursky 5y ago
  I mean, a year of employer-paid leave is frankly ridiculous. There needs to be federal support for that kind of benefit. It's not really the parental leave policies (which are often generous). It's the environment around WFH policies and setting up viable career paths for part-time work which is lacking. Ex, if a woman wants to work 20 hours a week instead of being a full-time worker with small children, none of the FAANGs to my knowledge offer a career path that looks like that.
heavyset_go 5y ago
> "Parent" is not a protected class Many states make familial status a protected class in employment, and the FMLA also makes discriminating based on certain family-based factors illegal.