How a single mobile phone snap got people in the twitterverse and across the IT world asking, “Where are all the women at tech events?”… and refusing to take silence for an answer.
In 2017, tech-industry veteran and then-Director of Public Cloud Strategy at Ensono Lin Classon tweeted a picture of an empty women’s restroom at the AWS re:Invent conference. She wanted to make a simple but meaningful statement to her followers, mostly friends and fellow IT pros, about the lack of female attendees at such events.
The tweet quickly traveled far beyond its original audience. It grabbed the attention of women across the tech world as well as the media, sparking long-overdue conversations about female representation and inclusion in technology—and ultimately leading to the launch of Ensono’s first-ever Speak Up survey, now in its third year. Today, as SVP of Platform Strategy at Kognitiv, Lin is still advocating for more female faces, voices and points of view in the tech space. The Maven Report editor Sheila Lothian recently caught up with Lin to look back on the tweet that started it all and hear about what’s giving her pause—and hope—for women in technology today.
6 Adam Rowe, “What Women’s Restrooms Can Tell Us About Tech Conference Sexism,” Tech.co, 2019.
Sheila Lothian: Lin, give us a quick recap of what prompted you to post the tweet from the restroom of AWS re:Invent back in 2017 and what happened after.
Lin Classon: Even at that time, AWS re:Invent was a massive conference with tons of attendees. In between sessions, the lines for the men’s restrooms were huge. But I was able to just walk right into a beautiful, clean, empty women’s restroom every time. Typically, whether you’re at a concert or the airport or even just a store, it’s the women’s restrooms that have the lines streaming out. The difference was just so striking. So, I took a picture and tweeted it out. As cliché as it sounds, a picture is worth a thousand words. And if you were a woman who had been to a lot of tech conferences, you knew the story that picture told.
I think the tweet showed up at the right time to get some attention. The #MeToo movement was happening, people were starting to look at some of the unaddressed biases and inequities out there and say, “Hey, this isn’t right. We should talk about it.” Obviously, we need to find solutions. But the first thing you have to do is start talking about the problems. So there was really a groundswell of those conversations happening then, which the tweet became a part of. I had women reaching out to me saying, “This is exactly what I was thinking.” Media outlets picked up on it.
But to me the best outcome was that my company’s Marketing leader at the time, who was a woman, said, “You know what? Let’s do something about this. Let’s see if we can find some data to support this hypothesis and figure out how to make this better.” That turned into the Speak Up survey which really quantified the issues around lack of female representation at tech conferences and brought a lot of visibility and discussion to the issue. And it also got the entire team excited because we all felt the company was really walking the walk. Not just saying, “Hmm, that’s terrible… yes, that really resonates,” but taking action.
SL: In a 2019 interview with Tech.co1 about your tweet, you said, “The under-representation of women at major tech events is largely a pipeline problem, and it’s something I experience at every IT event I attend.” Have you seen that problem improve since then?
LC: To build a pipeline, there has to be a pathway. We have to get girls interested in STEM, studying STEM, recruited by STEM companies. But that pathway can’t just start. It needs to go on. It needs to take women all the way to positions of power and influence where they can actually create change.
One person I think is doing this in a powerful way is Melinda French Gates. She started an investment fund, Pivotal Ventures, and she has been very intentional about focusing on startups founded and owned by women. Culture is hard to change. We must do it, but it’s hard. She wants to do something a little more drastic. Because if these startups grow and succeed, it will fundamentally change the landscape of the tech world. The female perspective will be built in from the very beginning, built into the vision, built into the culture, built into the products, built into the design. And what she’s proving is that investing in women isn’t charity. It’s good business. It’s a profitable model. So, it’s twofold: she’s demonstrating through her own example the impact women in power can make, and she’s also creating the pathways for other women to get all the way there. Of course, everyone cannot be a billionaire philanthropist. And that is not the only way to create change in the world. But seeing her lead from the top gives me hope.
SL: What impact do you think the post-pandemic shift to remote work has had on women’s representation and advancement in tech?
LC: One good thing that came out of the pandemic was that it leveled the playing field. When tech conferences went all virtual, I noticed female attendance shot up. The interest in the content was always there, but suddenly the barriers that kept many women from attending in person were gone. Reduced or no attendance cost. No travel cost. It was easier for people who have others in the household to care for.
The same thing happened in the workplace. When everyone was working remotely, the playing field was more level. Now that things are opening up, I’m not too concerned about a negative impact on women in companies that are all-remote, or companies that have a fixed hybridity policy for everyone—two days a week in the office, three days remote, whatever it may be. That’s great for women who are caretakers and if companies are careful not to let things slip back to the status quo, it’s still a level playing field.
But I am very concerned about the impact in companies that offer very flexible policies where you have some people always working in the office and some people always working remotely. And I’m not the only one. I think someone has coined the term “Zoom ceiling.” Instead of a glass ceiling women have this new barrier, this new form of bias in favor of people who are working in person. Because inevitably, women are going to lean toward that remote option.
SL: Can you share some advice for successfully navigating this new remote landscape?
LC: From the top on down, companies need to be aware of the potential for bias that may unintentionally exist towards employees who are in-office and provide managers with more training and tools to help them combat it. Maybe that means more planned engagement or more frequent goal setting. Maybe it’s mandating the use of participation tools on communication platforms so remote workers can have a stronger presence in meetings. Really just being very conscientious about ensuring equal treatment for people who are working from home and people who are back in the office.
Managers of mixed in-person/remote teams need to be highly focused on deliverables and outcomes. But the outcomes only matter if you’re able to provide your team with very clear expectations. And I think it’s okay to be very specific. Managers don’t want to seem like micromanagers—and people don’t want to be micromanaged. But in this environment, that kind of clarity is critical. And remote employees who are part of mixed teams have to be much more proactive about “showing their work”. Your manager isn’t going to walk by your desk and see your three monitors and multiple spreadsheets up or see you strategizing in a conference room like they will with your in-person colleagues. If your work is kind of invisible, you need to make it visible. Again, it’s not about being micromanaged, it’s about giving your manager a view into your day-to-day, so they know you’re performing at an equally high level.
We also need to engineer more humanity into our work interactions when we’re remote. Give someone a “thumbs up” reaction on a call. Send them an email and say, “Great job in that presentation today!” Schedule a 15-minute chat just to catch up. It can be hard, especially if you’re an introvert. It can feel a little artificial. But it makes a difference. And managers can help here too. Maybe it becomes part of a goal: “Hey, I want to make sure you continue to be part of the group, let’s plan for you to schedule five coffee chats across the org this quarter.”
And for women especially who find it hard to make their voices heard working remotely, I really recommend joining online communities. There are a lot of women out there in a role just like yours, in a situation like yours. And once you start participating in those conversations and feeling that support, you will find the confidence to raise your hand in the next virtual meeting and make yourself heard. Because you’ll feel like you have a thousand angels at your back supporting you.
SL: Before we let you go… any upcoming tech conferences planned?
LC: I’m definitely looking at which conferences line up with my schedule now that we’re back in person—and I will be keeping my fingers crossed for some nice long lines at the women’s restrooms. But I’ll have my camera ready, just in case!
This conversation has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. See results from the Ensono 2022 Speak Up survey here.
