I always enjoy hearing of the current research by Catalyst. It was a
special treat today to hear Kara Helander of Catalyst speak along with
Betty Shanahan of the Society of Women Engineers and Telle Whitney of
the Anita Borg Institute. Their panel followed the Women of Color
lunch here at the Hopper Conference in San Diego. Kara and I worked
together some years ago on Catalyst’s book Bit by Bit in which
the SEED program is presented as the case study on mentoring in industry.
After the panel was over, I left Kara with a copy of my presentation
“5 Years of Mentoring by the Numbers”, SEED’s metrics
report. I look forward to her comments.
The specific data presented by the panel on technical women in industry
was interesting and I hope to
get a copy for further study. However, I think most interesting was
some advice that Betty Shanahan offered about how women can support
other women in a nasty situation
that many professional and academic women face: that of getting heard in a
room mostly full of men. The problem is not vocal volume but rather
silence or lack of acknowledgement. Here is what often happens:
-
In a discussion, a woman
voices an opinion. This is followed by silence and then the discussion
continues as if nothing was said. Later, her idea is presented again by
a man and discussed as if for the first time.
I have had this happen to me more than once and I have heard many women
talk about the pattern, so I think it must be a common experience.
Betty made a specific suggestion: if a woman sees this happening to another
woman, she can ask her a question. That is, without agreeing or disagreeing
with the original opinion, the second woman can insert into the silence
the words “Please tell us more.” This simple acknowledgement of the
first woman’s opinion breaks the pattern and ties the
idea to its originator. I want to try this!
KatysBlog 