I co-presented a "Male Allies" talk last month at an Amazon conference with the extremely talented Natalie White and thought I'd share here (pt 1). An ally is a person who *actively* supports the rights of a marginalized group that they are not a member of. "Ally" is not a label that you get to assign yourself through your intentions, it's a badge you earn through your *intentional actions.* Allies can't just "not be a bad guy" - you have to actually be the good guy and good guys lend a hand and help out. Helping out doesn't mean being a "Hero" or a "Rescuer" - situations that require heroics are rare and people who are members of marginalized groups are fully capable of being their own heroes. Being an Ally means taking steady and regular actions in the moment (daily!) to make space, question, correct lightly, and set an expectation of equity so that your colleagues don't have to do this all by themselves - on top of their other work - on top of the inequities that make that work harder. Natalie's talk that I contributed to focused on gender allies because men in software have an outsized ability to act as allies to women and non-binary people in US corporate tech culture. Tech companies like Amazon have more men in leadership roles, women enter tech fields at a lower rate (US), and exit computer science at shorter tenures than men - with research showing that bad culture is one of the biggest reasons for that departure. Men benefit from a host of tech gender stereotypes - in that they don't suffer the same harms of micro-aggressions ("smile more!"), cultural expectations ("she'll volunteer to be the note taker!"), and conflicting standards ("He's a direct leader! She's a B!"). We simply just benefit from being the majority gender of the computer science field - and not because we're more capable (we're not). Being an Ally is the right thing to do as a person, for our colleagues, and as an imperative to make our workplaces more diverse (companies with higher diversity perform better), equitable (fairness ensures higher performance and engagement by our people), and inclusive (feeling included where we spend so much of our lives makes us happier and healthier people - and perform better). While men have a lot to do as allies in software, there is room for all of us be allies to someone - to the only quality engineer in the team, to the person on the team who immigrated from another country, to the person who looks "different" from others in the team, and yes - even to graduates of Ohio State (spoiler - I went to the University of Michigan). More to come if there is interest...
Alex Komisarenko
8mo
+1 on all points, aside from the fact that no university teaches how to “correct lightly on the job”, without burning the wires… Is there a course for that? Most universities don’t teach this explicitly along with professional courses.
Kim Nico
8mo
I’m so glad you joined Natalie for this talk. I think it’s one of the best ones I have seen on this topic, and you both were so authentic. If you’re at Amazon, you can watch it on broadcast!
Love this. I'd love to read more.
Well articulated, Brian Mount! It matters a ton to hear from men in tech that they care and show commitment to shaping an inclusive culture. THANK YOU for this thoughtful and constructive post!
Principal Enterprise Solutions Architect - Technical Therapist - Builder - DevOps Cultural Transformation
8moI’m so thankful that you contributed your own story to the session. You built a lot of trust as a tenured Amazonian and technologist who has seen the impact culture can have on a team and an organization, and intentionally tried to make tech a more inclusive place for women to thrive. The most important part of any session is the homework we gave to everyone listening. Changing the culture of tech isn’t up to just managers or HR - every one of us can make small changes to our daily interactions that can lead to lasting results at scale. You can focus on retention and make sure the way code reviews, team dynamics, company policies, and sponsorship aren’t making the job harder than it needs to be. You can focus on Hiring the Best and change your recruiting strategy to recognize the risk we take leaving a place where we’ve spent time and energy and political proving ourselves and have to start over. You can focus on the long-term pipeline of the next generation of incredible minds through K-12 STEM outreach. The Society of Women Engineers publishes research every year on the state of women in engineering and tech; every one of us can learn and do things differently starting today!