How to Create an Inclusive Workplace to Empower Women in Tech

How to empower women in Tech and create an inclusive workplace 

If your business wants to recruit top talent and remain competitive, it’s crucial you uncover ways to create an inclusive Tech workplace by understanding intersectionality, learning to listen, and taking a good look at your c-suite.

Understanding intersectionality

Intersectionality is a key factor when looking to create a safe space that promotes professional growth for the women of your company.

Hiring talent from underrepresented minorities won’t solve all of your internal culture problems, nor will it assist in supporting and empowering any of your business’s professionals. 

Intersectionality is a tool that will help you in understanding the complex and intricate systems of inequality that employees face while highlighting the specific and distinct needs of each.

Your business will need to adopt an intersectional lens to craft an inclusive Tech workplace effectively.

Put more women in Tech in the C-Suite

At a SXSW event, a panel discussed the inclusion and diversity issues Tech companies face across the nation, emphasizing that changes regarding inclusivity and diversity must start with leadership AKA the C-level suite.

If you want your company to understand the importance of empowering women in Tech, your executives must show those at the top see the value in providing the support women need in order to create an inclusive Tech workplace.

Once it’s clear your exec team believes diversity and inclusion aren’t soft skills but tools to increase your profitability, revenue, and retention rates, it’s more likely to trickle down into the field.

Learn how to listen to women in Tech

To understand how best to support and empower the women within your company one of the most important tools, which is often overlooked, is simply to listen.

An employee’s experiences with co-workers and managers are more telling about your company’s inclusiveness than many other metrics. 

Hold more meetings, more 1-on-1s, and provide other channels to open up honest communication.

If you’re looking to empower your female employees you’ll need to be open to listening and receiving honest feedback, which means creating safe places for that feedback to be received.

Support career planning for women in Tech

Many companies have found that career mapping and 1-on-1 mentorships have successfully helped empower and support the women that work for them.

Companies like Intel, IMG, and Paypal all have established 1-on-1 mentorship programs where women are mentored and given a chance to carve out their own futures.

Programs like these are effective because they allow women to fully realize their potential, and shows that the company is invested in their well-being and future.

Simply put, when you invest in your employees, they will invest in your business.