Advertising Continue reading below What has been really great about hosting Janes is that the attendance of our male allies and colleagues has Photo Background Removing increased from event to event. In our last New York Janes, for example, I would say it was about 40% male and 60% female. As they attend, I see more and more of them asking questions because they also feel like it's a safe space to ask questions they've had, but they never knew who to turn to with them. I have seen changes in their behaviors, in their way of thinking and even in the language they use. I think the other brilliant thing, even though we call ourselves Janes of Digital and we lead with Photo Background Removing women's issues, because we have a panel, we were able to invite an array of other minority groups: African Americans, Asians -Americans, the LGBTQ community.
I think it even opened the eyes of many in the room who would consider themselves a true champion of diversity. It opened their eyes to the experiences Photo Background Removing and stories of these minority groups. I think it fosters a community that supports us all and is allies to each other. What are some direct ways employers or thought leaders can do to increase diversity beyond talking about it at events like Janes of Digital? Many hands together: group of diverse people joining hands Frances: What my team has started doing at every team meeting is we Photo Background Removing make time to talk about diversity and inclusion. It's on the agenda, it's an official part of our team conversations. I think just saving time allowed people, again, to ask questions and raise issues.
I do something else every Friday, send an email to my team with a little diversity and inclusion fact or picture, something small that you can read in Photo Background Removing seconds. Advertising Continue reading below With that in mind, I find it useful. The other thing you can do, and which Microsoft has invested heavily in, is company-wide diversity and inclusion training. One of the great things that Microsoft has done is create a course called “Unconscious Bias”. There is obviously sexism, racism and harassment, but there are many things we say, behaviors and decisions we make that negatively affect diversity and inclusion. But we don't know that we do Photo Background Removing them. There are these unconscious biases that we all have based on how we are raised, the communities we have lived in, the countries we have visited, etc.