The other day I was reading a popular blog site and was redirected to another popular blog site which led me to another popular blog site and another. I realized a couple things: 1) these popular and semi-famous bloggers were all male (and mostly Caucasian); and 2) none of these popular blog sites led me to a popular woman’s blog site. Why not? Initially, I thought it was a coincidence that these bloggers happened to know each other (some even admitted to being friends or business colleagues of one another). I thought these male bloggers had all accomplished these amazing feats entirely on their own. Then, I finally admitted to myself that it wasn’t pure coincidence. Similar to the engineering or business worlds, these male bloggers only had men in their inner circles and as a result were only promoting and sponsoring each other. That’s when I became frustrated and upset.
Quoting or mentioning other successful women bloggers wasn’t top of mind for these male bloggers. Perhaps this was unconscious bias. Stanford professor and historian Londa Schiebinger cites that “[if] you have more women on [a] research team, specifically in leadership positions, you get an increase in sex and gender analysis in the research, or vice-versa.” In other words, women are more aware of the roles that sex and gender play especially in medical research whereas male researchers may consciously or unconsciously not consider sex or gender. Considering both sexes in research has helped identify osteoporosis as a problem in men also and uncovered gender bias in machine learning. Similar to medical researchers, perhaps these male bloggers haven’t had to think of the other (i.e., women or minorities) because no one has held them accountable or questioned their findings.
This led me to think differently about how we can approach fostering diversity and inclusivity in STEM professions, business, writing, the arts, and beyond. We need something more than mentorship or sponsorship. We, minorities, need to be tidal allies for each other and promote more women and minorities to positions of power across all organizations and companies from startups to Fortune 1000 corporations. We also need men to be and do the same for us. Note that a tidal ally is inherently different from mentorship and sponsorship. Mentorship, according to Wikipedia, is defined as “a relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person“. Sylvia Ann Hewlett writes that a sponsor is “someone who uses chips on his or her protégé’s behalf and advocates for his or her next promotion as well as doing at least two of the following: expanding the perception of what the protégé can do; making connections to senior leaders; promoting his or her visibility; opening up career opportunities; offering advice on appearance and executive presence; making connections outside the company; and giving advice. Mentors proffer friendly advice. Sponsors pull you up to the next level”.
What is a tidal ally? Similar to tides that assist and lift all boats to the ocean or sea, tidal allies are people with network connections that can promote, advise, assist, and advocate for ambitious, high-achieving, and top-performing women and minorities in any industry. Tidal allies’ mission is to help all people, not just men, succeed in their professional lives. Tidal allies can offer introductions and let other leaders know a protégé’s potential. Tidal allies also foster company cultures based on inclusivity, flexibility, and collaboration, not competition, jealousy, or scarcity. Tidal allies hold other men accountable for advancing women and minorities in their organizations and companies.
This may sound like we are holding tidal allies to higher standard. It’s true, we are. However, this is how we can build new cultures in the workplace from startups to corporate America. Together we can reshape workplace culture and build collaborative highly-evolved communities both online and in our every day lives.
Reach out to me on my contact page if you have other ideas for how we can support tidal allies or ways you’ve promoted more diverse and inclusive communities. I read every comment.