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Building allyship for women at work

By Albert Qian posted 03-31-2021 07:06 PM

  
By Emily He, SVP HCM Marketing

As we’ve seen from a flood of headlines over past decades, it’s far harder for women to get and stay employed in general, and that tough reality has been exacerbated by the pandemic. The situation is even direr for women from under-represented communities.

Given the recent challenges we’ve seen as we’ve adapted to work-from-home routines, the priority focuses on diversity & inclusion as a business imperative, and with March being Women’s History Month, I wanted to sit down with another leader in my demographic to hear about her experiences and secrets for navigating what is too often a tricky path to success.

I didn’t have to look far: I chatted recently with Traci Wade, senior director of Diversity & Inclusion at Oracle, who is an expert in the field.

Wade, who is a Black 16-year veteran at the company, had a lot of useful tips on building allyship for women in the workplace—many of which confirm my own experiences as an Asian American woman. Here are some highlights from our conversation:

Begin by building allyship

Before we dive into the topic, we first need to define what we mean by allyship. Allyship is the notion that a group, in this case, women from under-represented communities, help each other succeed. That help can come in the form of mentoring, counseling, and even in some cases, financial support if that is possible and appropriate.

“Women have to lift each other up, share their experiences and bring diverse, underrepresented groups into the fold,” Wade says.

One of the best examples of allyship comes in the form of support a person receives when she is out of the room, and an ally courageously speaks up against inequality on the behalf of that person, says Wade. Allyship does not have to come from members of the same group; in fact, some of the most powerful allies can be people who do not look like you.

Strengthen active listening skills

When becoming an ally, “active listening” is absolutely fundamental. That means listening to understand, not to respond. Too often people listen only long enough to find an opening to jump into the conversation instead of truly taking in the ideas being conveyed.

Wade says, “Don’t just assume you know what to do to help me in my career: Have the conversation to understand my goals. It is far more important to do things with insight and understanding on how to support that person, rather than do things without input.” That is active listening.

Understand nuance, aka read the room

Every professional woman has stories about a male colleague, manager, or even subordinate, talking over her in a meeting; explaining things to her that didn’t require explanation; or repeating what she just said—and then taking credit for it.

This is maddening of course, but it’s important to try to get to the roots of the Mr. Mansplainer’s behavior before taking action. In many cases, the offender is oblivious to what he is doing, and his faux pas can be addressed right in the room. Humor can often help, as in: “Why, thank you Frank for confirming that the idea I talked about 10 minutes ago is a winner.”

If the setting is less friendly, you might want to discuss his pattern of behavior with trusted allies and come up with a plan. Perhaps talk to him offline, privately about why his verbosity makes your job harder and hurts productivity.

“I never embarrass a person in the room with others, but I will take someone aside and say, ‘Here’s how I felt when you did that and I want to make you are aware,” says Wade.

If the behavior persists, you must act. Speak up. And make your voice heard.

Be assertive and reverse role stereotypes

Additionally, women need to take ownership of their careers, and that often means speaking up. I am not a natural public speaker but over the years I’ve gotten more comfortable speaking first in meetings, not waiting for someone else (usually a man) to take the lead. In doing so, I get my thoughts in and set the tone.

I also make sure that tasks that have traditionally fallen to the women in the room—regardless of their titles—are shared with men equally. Why should Joan always have to schedule our Zoom calls? Same thing on taking notes, ordering food, and cleaning up the conference room (if we ever get back to in-person meetings). Spreading the “administrative” work around sends an important message. Do everything you can to make sure male executives do the same.

Working together to advance the whole

With strong allyship, women help themselves as individuals and as a group. By supporting each other, sharing experiences, and tips, women can accelerate progress in hiring and promotion. At this time in history, when Black, Hispanic, and Asian women have been hit hardest by pandemic-induced job loss, we cannot waiver.

It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s also good for business. Companies that embed D&I across their entire organization, by hiring, retaining, and promoting across gender, racial and ethnic groups, LGBTQ community and more, have a better chance to appeal to the widest possible market and see higher levels of productivity and better financial performance.

And, as we make progress, we can share in the success together.

How are you committing to being a better ally?

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Want to learn what companies are doing for their diversity and inclusion initiatives? Read our report, Addressing Diversity and Inclusion: Going Beyond the Benchmark.

Learn more about Oracle Cloud HCM and our diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Finally, read our other blogs on Diversity and Inclusion:

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