Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s “karma” comments at the recent Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference won’t die down quietly: Women don’t need to ask for a pay raise because we can trust in meritocracy; the system will treat us fairly. Karma will take care of us.
This reminds me of Boy George. Then, I get the giggles. If you’re too young or have better taste than to admit to knowing Boy George and Culture Club’s 1983 smash “Karma Chameleon,” here’s one verse:
I’m a man without conviction. I’m a man who doesn’t know. How to sell a contradiction. You come and go. You come and go.”
Ample others are commenting on Nadella: Lydia Dishman’s The Perfect Case Against Microsoft CEO’s Remark That Women Shouldn’t Ask for Raises is terrific. When I think there’s not one more thing to say about Nadella, another insightful article crosses my path.
Thanks to Nadella, important conversations have sparked and caught fire. In that spirit, let me share a Microsoft memory.
Diversity Moment
As a volunteer facilitator for a youth leadership program I was asked to write and share a “Diversity Moment,” a memory of a time when I felt different, or felt I was treated differently. Sharing a Diversity Moment with adult peers is part of the pre-“Diversity Day” training, ostensibly to sensitize and prepare us for fostering open, tolerant discussion.
It was tough narrowing down my diversity moment. I’ve frequently experienced a sense of being different, being the only one.
A few of my “only one” times: on the streets of Nairobi (only white face); in governmental halls of Saudi Arabia (only American); while pushing onto trains in Tokyo (only person over 5’9); hanging out on a Thai island (only English-speaker); almost every dinner party (only single person); and a whole lot of other only-one-moments around this beautiful and crazy world of ours.
Being the only woman at U.S. state government leadership tables takes up the biggest space in my diversity memory bank. But when charged with writing my top-of-mind diversity moment memory, all I could think of was Microsoft.
All Hail, Brave Women in Technology
Consulting with Microsoft on a project gave me the eerie sense that I’d stepped into 1954. Mad Men-ish, wives home taking care of the children while the men travel on expense accounts. Typically, I found myself to be the only woman at Microsoft meetings.
I vividly recall one meeting in Albany. Eleven men and me around a conference table. A picture within a demo screen shot depicted our mock client as an attractive female. A male colleague burst out “if that’s what our clients look like I’ll be at all the client meetings.”
Driving en route to lunch, the same colleague yelled “ooo baby” and whistled out the SUV window at a young woman walking down the street.
At dinner that night, I reiterated a point I didn’t believe was being taken into account and he said, “stop acting like Mommy.”
I like the man I’m talking about. I’d work with him again in a heartbeat because he’s creative and IT savvy and most of the time a whole lot of fun.
Similar to the applauding audience at the Grace Hopper conference—until Nadella’s karma chameleon kicked in—liking that Microsoft man doesn’t remove the queasy factor. I perceived sexism to be blatant at his company, evidenced by the sexist utterances that popped out of his mouth unchallenged.
Hats off to women in technology: you are fearless, you are courageous, you inspire me.
Younger Voices
Ironically or perhaps fittingly, the excellent youth leadership program that catalyzed my Microsoft memory is based in St. Louis, Missouri. As the world now sees, the St. Louis area is rift with economic disparity, racial injustice, and plenty of systemic violence and silencing.
Those youth program participants, I’ll loosely call “millennials,” taught me tons. One of my first lessons: What DWB means. Driving While Black, a dangerous activity in the St. Louis metro area. Those young leaders were on my mind as I read Nadella’s comments.
Like many American women, and almost all people of color in the United States, millennials know not to put their trust in American meritocracy. They understand that systems are untrustworthy, that meritocracy based on performance isn’t real. Jennifer Deal notes one aspect of this in her Microsoft CEO Says Trust the System . In his book, Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy , Chris Hayes beats this drum convincingly.
W.H. Auden reminds us: “All I have is a voice.” I radically agree. That’s how important voice is: develop it, use it wisely, openly and boldly.
Writing this Microsoft memory, using my voice in this way, might mean I never get to work for that company again. I hope that’s not the case. If it is, let’s chalk it up to karma.
#inCourageLeading, Jone
Image via www.gettingtoknowtheworld.com.
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