{"id":14009,"date":"2016-03-14T19:36:08","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T00:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/?p=14009"},"modified":"2024-06-06T08:55:38","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T13:55:38","slug":"sxsw-afternoon-tea-party-on-women-diversity-in-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/sxsw-afternoon-tea-party-on-women-diversity-in-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"SXSW: Afternoon Tea Party On Women &#038; Diversity In Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Heather Brunner, CEO of WP Engine, participated in an\u00a0afternoon\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/sxsw-2016-afternoon-tea-for-women-in-tech-tickets-22048203771\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tea party for women in tech<\/a> at the Great Britain House in downtown Austin to discuss female leadership in technology. The event and panel included a discussion around\u00a0the economic and social benefits\u00a0of\u00a0supporting strong female leadership in technology fields.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14042\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14042\" style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4943-1.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14042\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-14042 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4943-1.jpg\" alt=\"C39A4943\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4943-1.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4943-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4943-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4943-1-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4943-1-216x144.jpg 216w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4943-1-851x567.jpg 851w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14042\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;I believe that diversity attracts diversity. You can\u2019t be it if you can\u2019t see it.&#8221; &#8211; Heather Brunner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Brunner discussed how it&#8217;s imperative for technology companies to bring together and build communities including women and people of all ethnicities and beliefs. She then\u00a0presented\u00a0on some of WP Engine&#8217;s diversity statistics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>60% of executives are\u00a0women<\/li>\n<li>31% of non-exec management are women<\/li>\n<li>26% of employees are women<\/li>\n<li>28% of employees are non-white<\/li>\n<li>33% of employees have no college degree<\/li>\n<li>There is gender equality in payment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Super cool &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wpengine?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@wpengine<\/a> is doing what should everybody do: equal pay for equal work. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/welike?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#welike<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UKatSXSW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UKatSXSW<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MjB77iTqQy\">pic.twitter.com\/MjB77iTqQy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; DigitalMediaWomenDE (@DigiWomenDE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DigiWomenDE\/status\/709464320690798592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 14, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Following the speaker introductions and a deeper discussion, panelists invited the guests to ask questions:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14036\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14036\" style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4947-1.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14036\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-14036 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4947-1.jpg\" alt=\"C39A4947\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4947-1.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4947-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4947-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4947-1-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4947-1-216x144.jpg 216w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C39A4947-1-851x567.jpg 851w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14036\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Left to right) Nadya Powell of The Sunshine Company, Heather Brunner of WP Engine, and Sara Brand of True Wealth Ventures answer audience questions. Antonia Romeo moderated the event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Here are a few\u00a0of the questions that were asked:<\/p>\n<p><em>Q: What advice do you have for women with an idea\u00a0to start their own businesses?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Heather Brunner: If you have an idea, don\u2019t let not knowing every competency around running a business deter you from pursuing that idea. You can form a team later to help you with the things you might not know how to do.<\/p>\n<p><em>Q:\u00a0What&#8217;s an influential book you&#8217;ve read?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Heather Brunner:\u00a0I love the book <em>The Hard Thing About Hard Things. <\/em>Being a leader, whether male or female, requires courage and requires you to do things that are difficult. The advice offered in the book is applicable to leaders at all levels.<\/p>\n<p><em>Q:\u00a0What advice do you have for women who want to have these conversations about women in tech, especially when it\u2019s all men?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Heather Brunner: It&#8217;s important to ask the question, &#8220;what can we do as leaders to have more diversity in the workspace?&#8221; If you find yourself in an environment that doesn\u2019t value diversity, fine somewhere that\u2019s more adaptable.\u00a0I think it is critical that men are our partners in business and that we don\u2019t isolate them. It\u2019s about educating them about diversity.<\/p>\n<p><em>Q: Who do you look up to?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Heather Brunner:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/leesymariexo?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elise Nelson<\/a> from Vital Voices.\u00a0The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UN?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UN<\/a> has also been doing a fantastic job of tracking women, and posting statistics on women globally.<\/p>\n<p><em>Q: What is your silver bullet?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Heather Brunner: I\u00a0would encourage everyone in the room to ask questions, like why is my company not paying equal pay for equal work? Are women and men paid equally? If not, what can we do to change it?<\/p>\n<p><em>For more on today&#8217;s tech talk, follow\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uktiusa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@UKTIUSA<\/a> and search the hashtag <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UKatSXSW?src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#UKandSXSW<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heather Brunner, CEO of WP Engine, participated in an\u00a0afternoon\u00a0tea party for women in tech at the Great Britain House in downtown Austin to discuss female leadership in technology. The event and panel included a discussion around\u00a0the economic and social benefits\u00a0of\u00a0supporting strong female leadership in technology fields. Brunner discussed how it&#8217;s imperative for technology companies to<span class=\"tile__ellipses\">&hellip;<\/span><span class=\"tile__ellipses--animated\"><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":14010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[523,387,239],"class_list":["post-14009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event","tag-heather-brunner","tag-sxsw-interactive","tag-women-in-tech"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SXSW: Afternoon Tea Party On Women &amp; Diversity In Tech | WP Engine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Join the conversation on women and diversity in tech at SXSW. 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Learn about the discussions and initiatives to promote inclusion in the digital marketing and website development industry.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/sxsw-afternoon-tea-party-on-women-diversity-in-tech\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WP Engine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpengine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-15T00:36:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-06-06T13:55:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/GreatBritainHousehero.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darcy Wheeler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@wpengine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@wpengine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darcy Wheeler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/sxsw-afternoon-tea-party-on-women-diversity-in-tech\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/sxsw-afternoon-tea-party-on-women-diversity-in-tech\/\",\"name\":\"SXSW: Afternoon Tea Party On Women & Diversity In Tech | WP Engine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-15T00:36:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-06-06T13:55:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/#\/schema\/person\/34868282515de283b983c228d0824b39\"},\"description\":\"Join the conversation on women and diversity in tech at SXSW. 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