Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
“U.S. CTO Megan Smith and the co-authors of “The Elephant in the Valley” survey on women in tech talk about their goals for a better work environment for women in technology at SXSW’s Girls Lounge.”
This headline is hilarious to me. Inclusion is for women, you guys.
From CES to SXSW, the small, local events to the international conferences - there is an obsession with making women feel included in tech right now. Walk into SXSW this week and you’ll discover that there’s a “Girls’ Lounge” for the ladies. At CES in January, there was a Chic Getaway for “women only” where we could get our hands on free lipsticks and jewelry. As well-meaning as these pop-up homages to being a female may be, it’s hard for me to see them as anything other than a passive aggressive attempt at placating the real problem. “You belong here!” is what they’re trying to say, but what they don’t realize is that by cordoning women off to a corner in a fancy hotel conference center they are essentially saying: “You belong here! In the room with the makeup!”
Inherently, you could argue that this is a positive step in the right direction because for far too long, women have been excluded altogether. Until recently, it wasn’t uncommon to go hours at these conferences and events without seeing a woman at all. The problem is that the approach taken by all these major events and hallmark brands in response to the outcry is just silly. They’ve designed a solution that allows them to check off the “women” box in their list of concerns and move on. It’s a pragmatic and strategic solution, but it fails to make any improvements with regards to the most important measure: inclusion.
Let’s define inclusion.
Inclusion means women and people of color are invited to be keynote speakers.
Inclusion means women and people of color are invited to be part of panels.
Inclusion means women and people of color are invited to host demos.
Inclusion means women and people of color are invited to be featured in the exhibitor space.
Inclusion means women and people of color are just seen. Everywhere.
For a long time, I’ve avoided talking about my problem with this phenomena, because it could easily be interpreted as whining. “But we’ve given you a lounge!” However, the very fact that I feel I don’t have the right to criticize the industry without it being perceived as an emotional reaction is the exact result of this kind of treatment. Our experiences are expected to be controlled and reserved. And believe me, the irony of that is not lost on me. With a closer examination of why I loathe it so much, these lounges and makeup gift bags are virtually a mirror for how I feel about my treatment as a woman in leadership in technology and film.
So often, I’m reminded that I’m a woman first and a CEO second. I am consistently told: “Oh wow, you’re a FEMALE director.” To some extent, I wear these identities with pride, because starting my own company and successfully growing it over the last three years has been a huge challenge, but doing it in an industry where women are largely not present has been remarkably more challenging because of the isolation I often experience. As a result, my success often feels like it has two very fractured paths: my success as the outlier AND my success as a business person and creative. I would so much rather be praised for my success in my work and my art than for my success for doing it despite having a set of boobs. But this is my reality.
I acknowledge that I bear some responsibility for my own internal narrative, but if we look at the cultural narrative about women’s success, it’s not much different. And while women are clearly involved in all the programming, organization and development of these Lounges, you have to wonder why this is the job they’re being given.
There’s not a day that goes by on the campaign trail where Hillary Clinton isn’t reminded that she’s a woman. And this is the problem with tokenism. When we constantly remind women and people of color that they are the “other” in the situation, it can be overwhelmingly challenging to see yourself in the role that you are trying desperately to earn. It begins to feel like a challenge you must overcome. Let me be clear: being a woman should NEVER be a challenge we need to overcome. And yet it is. I’m sure if we could ask Hillary Clinton what she wants, she would say that she wants to be the President of the United States, not the Female President of the United States of America.
And ask any woman what her first thought is in the morning and I guarantee you, it’s not: “Oh, I’m a woman again today.” But you can bet your ass she wakes up thinking about the 50 tasks she has to tackle on her to do list. And that’s important because when she achieves those things, I am certain she doesn’t think: “Wow, I can’t believe my lady brain got all that done!”
It would be easy to minimize this entire thing to a question of semantics. But to be frank: being a woman shouldn’t be a qualifier to your field, your work, your accomplishments and your title. And it shouldn’t be the reason you are given access to an event or given a seat at the table. Your hard work, success and accomplishments should be. We all have the right to define our selves. We have a right to be who we are first - and be our gender or our race or our sexual orientation - second.
I am tired of being reminded that I am a “female” director. I am tired of having my work qualified as something that is specific to my status as an XY chromosome set. I am tired of seeing the look in people’s eyes when they find out what I do. I am tired of being cordoned off to random rooms in 3 star hotels. And I’m tired of brands attempting to buy me with cosmetics. This job is hard enough without having to point out what seems so blatantly obvious to me all the damn time: women are just people. People like to be invited to things. Invite the people to be part of the things.
Is it really that much easier to find a rental company with a giant pink tent?
