How to fix what’s really wrong with companies
Over the past year, we’ve suffered so much. Covid-19 made almost everything worse at work. Harassment and hostility, work pressure, and the strain of a pandemic, along with trauma from ongoing racism, sexism, and other discrimination, have taken a toll on mental health. Until now, little research has been done on the impact of Covid-19 on the tech workforce. Project Include surveyed almost 3,000 people and interviewed dozens more about the shift to remote online workplaces. We looked specifically at who has been harmed, how they were harmed, and how to fix it.
Here’s what we learned: Harassment and hostility…
Privileged, yet excluded. Activists Ellen Pao and Tracy Chou explain the double-edged sword — and how to use it in the fight against racism.
Co-authored by Tracy Chou, Founder and CEO, Block Party; Co-founder, Project Include and Ellen K. Pao, Co-founder and CEO, Project Include
Asians in tech are now frequently considered so white-adjacent that we are no longer identified as people of color, as if the relative overrepresentation of some East and South Asians with socioeconomic and educational privilege means that the entirety of the AAPI community is no longer subject to issues of racism. …
Privileged, yet excluded. Activists Ellen Pao and Tracy Chou explain the double-edged sword — and how to use it in the fight against racism.
Co-authored by Tracy Chou, Founder and CEO, Block Party; Co-founder, Project Include and Ellen K. Pao, Co-founder and CEO, Project Include
Asians in tech are now frequently considered so white-adjacent that we are no longer identified as people of color, as if the relative overrepresentation of some East and South Asians with socioeconomic and educational privilege means that the entirety of the AAPI community is no longer subject to issues of racism. …
Pushing the Overton window and more
Cofounders Susan Wu, Laura Gόmez, Ellen Pao, Erica Baker, Y-Vonne Hutchinson, Freada Kapor Klein, Tracy Chou, and bethanye McKinney Blount in 2016
On May 4, 2016, we launched Project Include as a response to performative “solutions” to sexism and racism in the tech sector. We crafted a set of 87 recommendations for CEOs based on three values from the start: inclusion of everyone using an intersectional lens, a comprehensive approach covering every part of the life cycle of an employee, and metrics for accountability. …
How we chose the words to use in Project Include’s recent report
In writing a report on harm in remote workplaces since Covid-19 with Yang Hong, McKensie Mack, and Caroline Sinders, we made many deliberate language choices that could be helpful in understanding why and how words matter.
In the future, readers will find that some of the terms we use are out-of-date and do not stand the test of time. Some words have ambiguous meanings or negative connotations, and here we explain our uses and share other uses that we considered. Often, terms viewed as inclusive for some people were exclusive of others. Several identities did not have a fully inclusive…
Dear Jack,
We’re embarrassed that it’s gotten to the point where we have to explicitly write this:
Don’t support a coup.
Donald Trump is attempting a coup. And he’s running it through Twitter.
Yes, we know you’ve been flagging him, but flagging doesn’t help — it attracts more attention and more engagement. One flagged tweet has almost half a million likes and retweets. How many millions of people saw the tweet and believed it?
Suspend Donald Trump now
Dear Jack,
You can still make a difference for democracy, human health, and our planet. We are urging you, again, to do what you should have done four years ago when we first asked: Suspend Trump’s personal account based on his constant violations of Twitter’s Terms of Service and Policies. We specifically noted then and again now that his harmful tweets encourage and amplify hate and harassment from his followers in addition to spreading harmful propaganda and lies.
We are members of the Asian and Asian American tech community who stand in solidarity with the Black community. We acknowledge white supremacy and anti-Black racism in tech, and we call on our Asian and Asian American colleagues to use our relative privilege to demand change.
Our community has faced heightened anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic, including slurs and violent attacks rooted in white supremacy. We cannot fight the force of white supremacy without also fighting against anti-Black racism. We have benefited greatly from Black community activism for decades, from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that opened…
A call to action from Aniyia Williams & Ellen Pao
Women founders of color deserve recognition — and money. It’s time to replace the window-dressing with real representation.
On International Women’s Day, we should focus on the numbers, and the right numbers. International Women’s Day (#IWD2020) was designed to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of all women — while also marking a call to action for accelerating gender equality. …
Set targets, plan a budget, and do the basics
The past several years have been full of important learnings: Studies show how intersectionality applies to tech, makes the playing field uneven, and enables bias in hiring, funding, and compensation — including stock compensation. We all agree workplace harassment is wrong and cuts across gender and sexual orientation, and pledged to do better in recruiting, promoting, paying, and funding.
And we have a roadmap and tools. CEOs can move past tech backlash and public skepticism by affirming their commitment to a positive company culture and employee welfare through clear, simple actions that build trust with employees.
We are asking every tech startup CEO to take three actions in 2020.
Ellen K. Pao
Co-Founder and CEO of Project Include. Author of Reset. Angel investor.
