After attending the female-focused WomenHack Ottawa event, an article from First Round Review caught my eye:
Eight Ways to Make Your D&I Efforts Less Talk and More Walk.

The following quote jumped out at me:

“We’re over-indexing on getting underrepresented individuals in the door and under-indexing on including them once they’re here,” says Aubrey Blanche, the Global Head of Diversity & Belonging at Atlassian in a recent article for First Round Review.

The article goes on to outline her eight tips for startups looking to move past simply talking about Diversity and Inclusion (D&I), to ensure they are walking their talk.

Worth a read! 👀

It made me wonder how companies hiring to increase their gender diversity focus on inclusion once the employees are through the door. Benefits are one thing but actual flexibility, active inclusion and feeling welcome, are others.

A big part of what I’m trying to conquer with my pilot program are those feelings of isolation and exclusion mothers of young children feel once they are catapulted from their former lives into the new world of parenthood and related responsibilities.

You may be trading work events for community centre drop ins.
Boardrooms for breastfeeding ones.
Professional advancement for play dates.

Sure, it’s a temporary change (for some) but it can feel polarizing when your former life and current reality have such stark contrasts. Add to it the current lack of third spaces where the professional and parenting areas of our lives can intersect in a comfortable setting and you have a recipe for feelings of guilt, loneliness and disconnection.

Curious to know:

• What are some ways your workplace is practicing inclusion?
• Have you encountered any unique experiences you’d like to share?
• Positive examples of companies taking action and doing D&I well?
• Any other thoughts?

Please post in the comments below or contact me here!

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The future of work

As some of you may know, I’ve been working on a pilot program for child-friendly professional development. After spending the past few months speaking with potential stakeholders and local women who are on parental leave and some who have temporarily and/or indefinitely opted out of the workforce to be the primary caregiver for their families, I have a better understanding of their desires to be part of something that is inclusive and inspiring.

So when the invitation to attend WomenHack‘s first networking event in Ottawa arrived in my inbox, I visited the website to learn more and decided to take the opportunity to meet local companies trying to foster a more diverse and inclusive approach to their hiring processes. I wanted to see who they were looking to attract and what kind of response the first event received.

The event took place the night before my newborn son’s three-month birthday so I used the opportunity to attend my first event solo and celebrate the end of the ‘fourth trimester‘. Special shoutout to my husband and the boys’ Grandma for allowing me to slip out of the house at a decent time.

I’m glad I didn’t bring the baby along to this one as it started after 7 p.m., and it is fairly difficult to hold a rapid-fire speed networking interview during the so-called witching hour*.

Networking events can be awkward – especially speed-dating style recruitment-focused ones where there is a larger number of job seekers in proportion to employers. Once the timer counts down and you’re meant to jump to the next table (or stand in the queue as many had to), it can result in a bit of a ‘deer-in-the-headlights-quick-what’s-my-elevator-pitch’ moment.

There were about 80 attendees and 18 host companies with a range of roles on offer. Many of the employers boasted autonomy, equality and family-focused perks including:

• remote work
• flexible work schedules
• volunteer days
• reimbursement for professional development and education
• wellness programs
• equal pay
• women in leadership and mentoring programs
• paid and unpaid maternity leave
• reimbursement for fertility programs
• adoption benefits
• onsite childcare or subsidies for offsite daycare

I spoke with a few of the companies but as I’m not actively seeking a role and don’t have a Computer Science Degree 🤷‍♀️, I decided to give up on the speed round and free up some space. I took a more casual ‘float around the room and see what happens approach’ before heading home for the baby’s next feed.

That’s when I had a couple of great conversations with other ladies in the room and asked what they were looking for, sharing what I am working on: child-friendly, midday events focused on attendees who want to invest in themselves without sacrificing their family’s needs. Something to look forward to, feel welcomed at and inspired by.

Diverse? Tick.
Inclusive? Absolutely.

There should be another few WomenHack Ottawa events popping up over the coming months – if you’re interested in attending you can register for the list on their website.

Thanks to Pythian for hosting this month’s event!

*The last event I tried to take my newborn to was the Wesley Clover TechTuesday Panel on Diversity and Inclusion in the Tech Industry earlier this month. It started after 6 p.m. and the baby kicked off with some fussing around the time the panelists were introducing themselves, so I quickly stepped out.

Trying to attend industry networking events on diversity and inclusion after hours while parenting – oh, the irony! You can view a recap of the TechTuesday events on their YouTube Channel but if you want to network in tech in real life and are also a primary caregiver, good luck to you and I feel your pain!

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Download my FREE Babies + Business Mini Guide To Navigating The Corporate Jungle (With Kids), to encourage parents to explore more, invest in themselves alongside their children, take up space and make room for positive change when it comes to the future of work.

Learn more about Babies, Business + Breakfast™.

This week, I took my son with me to cast my ballot for the Ontario election early as I’m 36 weeks pregnant today and didn’t want to take any chances waiting for election day on June 7th!

We walked into our local voting station on a weekday morning and immediately brought the average age in the room down. 😂 He received a lot of warm smiles from the volunteers as we walked up to get my ballot, vote behind the privacy screen and submit it, before proceeding to take a nature walk outside.

It brought back memories of the last time I voted – also heavily pregnant with him almost two years ago on June 23rd, 2016 – in the Brexit referendum before he was born in early July. I only had to waddle down the street from our flat to cast my ballot at our local community centre. It felt majorly important to be part of history in a referendum which ended in a surprise result (for most Londoners anyhow) to leave the EU. Ironically, I was able to vote as a Citizen of a Commonwealth country and my husband was able to vote as an Irish Citizen, however, our Italian friends who had been living in London for much longer than we had didn’t get the same privilege.

This photo is from a post I did on Instagram the day the Brexit result was announced:

Other major referendums have happened over the past few years in other countries we have lived in but after we had moved to another part of the world. We had already moved to Canada by the time the historic yes vote results for Australia’s marriage equality referendum (November 2017) and Ireland’s abortion referendum (May 2018) took place.

We were actually in Dublin when the historic yes vote result was announced after Ireland’s marriage equality referendum (May 2015), as we had flown back from a wedding in Italy the night before! This is a photo I snapped of a ‘VOTE YES’ campaign van as we walked around on Saturday morning.

I have always taken an interest in politics and current events but the past few years have really emphasized the power of people, communities and ideas coming together to effect societal change.

Being pregnant seems to make me more aware of things I want to change, discuss, be part of and create. I’ve read of other women becoming more creative, ambitious, impatient or enterprising while waiting to meet their new child.

Perhaps it has to do with the unfolding timeframe, my lack of control over my own body and the desire to be a good role model for my sons, but instead of nesting with domestic tasks I am spending time plotting my first book and testing a business idea. Whatever it is that’s driving me, I certainly feel more strongly than ever about trying something new, experimenting with different ideas and implementing the social marketing theories I studied at university in day-to-day life.

I believe flexible work is important and essential to the success of individuals and businesses. You shouldn’t feel as though you have to opt out of the workforce because you don’t know where you belong. I’m focusing on contributing to the conversation around women and money, women and work, the gender wage gap and toll of unpaid labour. I will invest in myself, my family and other businesses. There’s a lot of discussion around “you can’t be what you can’t see”, so I am going to try my best to share my learnings along the way.

I have seen so many different types of communities and networks during my time abroad and I want to distill what I’ve learned in order to create a space where others feel welcome, understood and supported.

If you don’t have a seat at the table, then you’re probably on the menu. – Senator Elizabeth Warren

Curious to know if any others have felt more strongly about business, current events or politics lately? Drop me a line in the comments below or on social media, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Get the FREE Babies + Business Mini Guide

Download my FREE Babies + Business Mini Guide To Navigating The Corporate Jungle (With Kids), to encourage parents to explore more, invest in themselves alongside their children, take up space and make room for positive change when it comes to the future of work.

Learn more about Babies, Business + Breakfast™.