Presented by serial tech entrepreneur Bernadette Hyland to an audience of tech and design managers on building an inclusive, collaborative workplace. Bernadette Hyland began her career in Silicon Valley when 37% of computer science graduates were women. During the next two decades, the number of female engineers dropped to a low of 12% despite more women in the workplace. What happened? This talk highlights several remarkable female programming pioneers from the U.S. and Australia. This talk aims to engage the audience in a discussion on the value of diverse collaborations, the role of women and how we may be self-reflective to improve participation and collaboration in the workplace, and reduce discrimination and harassment.

1. VALUING
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
A talk by serial tech founder & CEO
Bernadette Hyland
CTO School Brisbane, QLD Australia
1 November 2017 hosted by ThoughtWorks
https://about.me/bernadettehyland
Thank you for inviting me to speak on diversity and inclusion in the workplace. At first, when Chris asked if I would speak on this topic, my first reaction was, isn’t this obvious and settled business? But
then I reflected on my own personal experiences, starting in Silicon Valley as an R&D engineer right out of university, a few years later getting a job with Goldman Sachs to write trading systems software, and
then in my mid-30’s starting a software company here in Brisbane, Plugged In Software.
Disclaimers:
➤ I’m not formally trained in HR or legal matters.
➤ I’m a serial tech entrepreneur who has worked in industry, government and startups in Australia and the U.S.
➤ I’ve run companies where I’ve hired and been responsible for over a 100 people during the course of my career, and had fiduciary responsibilities.

2. WHY DISCUSS
DIVERSITY IN
THE
WORKPLACE?
Isn’t this settled business?
https://about.me/bernadettehyland
Why is diversity important, especially in the tech industry?
Because technology doesn’t affect one, discreet demographic; it plays a massive role in all of our lives from the moment we wake up, travel to work, school or wherever we spend significant time during our
lives.
So how are we doing, both here in Australia and in the U.S?

3. #MeToo - from Amazon’s Roy Price to Harvey Weinstein, at all levels of power, in
all industries
Gretchen Carlson’s new book Be Fierce: Stop Harassment & Take your Power Back
STEADY NEWS ON HARASSMENT
Barrage of news from Gretchen Carlson, former Fox News journalist, and recent author of “Be Fierce: Stop Harassment and Take Your Power Back”, is speaking out and lobbying Congress for legislation
to curb NDA’s.
To news about Harvey Weinstein’s vulgar behavior, on the heels of Bill Cosby, Bill O’Reilly, and Donald Trump, “Grabber-in-Chief”. The #MeToo hashtag has gone viral.

4. SO, NO. IT ISN’T SETTLED BUSINESS
➤ Respect co-workers as
a matter of human
decency
➤ Follow workplace the
law - QLD Anti-
Discrimination Act
➤ It makes financial
sense
➤ So what is a diverse
workplace, really?
So NO, it isn’t obvious nor apparently is it settled business.
A diverse workplace is one that THINKS and ACTS with diversity is able to fulfill a broader range of roles, see different perspectives, and reach out to a broader range of customers.

5. WHAT IS AT STAKE?
➤ What issues do executives, including CTOs, face in Australia
regarding diversity?
➤ Anti-discrimination laws (racial, sexual discrimination)
while competing for talent, overcoming skills shortages,
training and retaining talent through both compensation
and a positive workplace culture.
➤ What could go wrong??
➤ Queensland has a detailed website of cases focused on
discrimination — cases on age, breastfeeding, family
responsibilities, gender identity, impairment, political belief
or activity, pregnancy, race, religious belief, sexuality, sexual
harassment, victimization and vilification …
https://about.me/bernadettehyland

6. STATS ON WOMEN IN SOFTWARE
➤ 1985 - about 37% of U.S.
computer science degrees (BS,
BA) conferred to women
➤ By mid-1990’s, U.S. women
studying computer science fell
below 30%
➤ By 2010, women made up only
17% of CS undergraduates,
though women represent 47%
of the workforce as compared
to 38% in the 1970s.
The Current State of Women in Computer Science, U.S. National
Center for Educational Statistics
https://about.me/bernadettehyland
I graduated with a degree in computational linguistics from a major U.S. public university, UCLA in 1987. About 37% of all computer science degrees conferred on undergraduates were to women.
I immediately passed “Go” and went to work in Silicon Valley for a highly respected tech company, Hewlett-Packard.
At the time, about one third of the management team were women with engineering degrees. I loved my first couple years at HP and learned a lot about management practices through having good
managers.

7. “Computer guys” marketed PCs to guys
just like them…
SO WHAT HAPPENED?!!
PCs were marketed to guys like them.
Marketing teams for the early personal computers marketed to one demographic segment … It was intensely limiting, not to mention alienating to women, people of color and most anyone who wasn’t a
young to middle aged white guy.

8. Occasionally the
marketing department
branched out…
Creating even more
alienating marketing
campaigns…
https://about.me/bernadettehyland

9. The language and images were about
dependability & companionship … https://about.me/bernadettehyland

10. slide credit: https://image.slidesharecdn.com/girlgeekdinner12-141216210832-conversion-gate01/95/a-brief-history-of-programming-18-638.jpg
Yet, many remarkable women have shaped programming — A quick recount of some of the pioneering women in software engineering … including the women who coined the phrase “software engineering”.
I learned about Ada Lovelace doing a programming assignment as an undergrad. The programming language Ada, is strongly typed and highly modular, with run-time checking and parallel processing. It was
originally designed as the mother of all programming languages used by the U.S. DoD in the 1980’s-1990’s.

11. Ada Lovelace is credited with being the first computer programmer in the mid-19th C. Ada publish an algorithm used on the first modern computer, the Analytical Engine, created by Charles Babbage and
used during the Industrial Revolution.

12. Dr. Euphemia Lofton Haynes,
mathematician & activist for desegregation
Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, U.S. Navy
ENIAC computer programmer, created a
language compiler, Mark I programmer
Katherine Johnson, NASA
calculated trajectory for the
first American in space to
inaugural Space Shuttle flight.
The movie Hidden Figures
featured her.
Euphemia Lofton Haynes, the first African-American woman to earn a PhD in mathematics in the early 1900’s. She became an activist for desegregation and fellow of the Association for the Advancement of
Science.
Grace Hopper, the first woman to create a language compiler, and one of the first programmers on the Mark I computer. She was joined by 6 female mathematicians programming the ENIAC computer
during 1944.
Australian Jane Power, a programmer on Australia’s first computer called the “CSIRAC" in 1949.

13. Annie Easley, NASA, worked on
technologies that led to hybrid vehicles
& software for spaceflight exploration. Margaret Hamilton, NASA lead software engineer,
MIT professor who later coined the term “software
engineering”
Annie Easley- she was amazing! She worked on technologies at NASA that led to hybrid vehicles, and software for spaceflight and exploration. Annie Easley earned a degree in mathematics at Cleveland
State University, while working full-time at NACA. Her male colleagues’ tuition was fully paid, however, she had to pay herself for her education expenses!

14. Meg Smith, U.S. Federal CTO
So, I went through this to highlight that women, women of color, from all geographic regions have been involved in the evolution of software in the U.S. and Australia.
I also state categorically, that the misguided PC marketing efforts to white males in 1980’s-1990’s, did a disservice to the remarkable women who were instrumental in information and communications
technology (ICT).

15. “Many girls and women today are unaware of
the variety of jobs that use software
engineering and IT expertise — including UI/
UX design, requirements analysis, product
management, space exploration, systems
engineering, AI & robotics. My goal is to
change that.
-Bernadette Hyland

16. WHAT DOES
DIVERSITY
LOOK LIKE?
Varying religious & political
beliefs, gender, ethnicity,
education, socio-economic
background, sexual orientation,
age, language, cultural context,
family status …
smallbusiness.chron.com/define-diversity-workplace-4926.html https://about.me/bernadettehyland
In its simplest form, diversity in the workplace means a composition with varying characteristics, including but not limited to, religious and political beliefs, gender, ethnicity, education, socioeconomic
background, sexual orientation, age, language, cultural context, family status.
Communication style, thinking style, personality, and learning style

17. SO WHAT DOES INCLUSION
LOOK LIKE?
➤ If diversity are the puzzle
pieces, then INCLUSION is
the “glue”
➤ Inclusion encourages
participation and full
collaboration of your team.
https://about.me/bernadettehyland
If diversity are the puzzle pieces, inclusion is the “glue”
Inclusion encourages participation and the full contribution of the team.

18. ➤ Ensure everyone has a voice in your
workplace
➤ Don’t let a co-worker sit on the
‘outer edge’ of the conference table
➤ Don’t speak over your co-workers
➤ Give credit where credit it due
➤ What one may consider “innocent”
comments … over months, years or
a career is degrading. Enough.
➤ Be respectful, especially when your
co-workers are different
➤ Cultural context is key
I’M JUST ONE PERSON,
WHAT CAN I DO?
https://about.me/bernadettehyland
➤ Ensure everyone has a voice in your workplace.
➤ Don’t let your female colleagues sit on the outer edge, outside the conference table. Offer everyone a seat the table.
➤ Don’t speak over your colleagues, and do not claim someone else’s idea as your own. Give credit where credit is due.
➤ Be respectful of your colleagues, especially when they are different to you.
➤ Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people are in the workplace — they serve in our militaries, libraries, governments, universities and in industry. Get over it. Live and let live.

19. WE ALL HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY
To positively impact our workplaces … starting today
https://about.me/bernadettehyland
If you see bad behavior with your colleagues, have a quiet word in the tea room and nip it in the bud. If you ignore it, your complicit.
Don’t tolerate little comments and behavior such as co-workers calling women “babe", “doll,” or “the girls.” Think about it. That is infantilism, treating women as children.
This is a unidirectional phenomenon calling women these infantile names. We don’t have reciprocal names for men in common usage.
If you’re a guy and come up behind a seated colleague and put your hand on her shoulder to ask her a question. Just don’t.
What one may consider “innocent” comments, over years, let alone a 30 year career, are not “just office talk”. If you “don’t mean anything by it”, don’t say it in the first place.
All of us must be introspective about the “cultural context” in which we work.

20. CREDITS
CSIRAC, the first computer in Australia (1949-1964), https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/
articles/1337
Define diversity in the workplace, smallbusiness.chron.com/define-diversity-
workplace-4926.html
Female Math Pioneers who changed our world, http://www.dreambox.com/blog/female-math-
pioneers-infographic
Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland, see https://www.adcq.qld.gov.au/
resources
Rocket Women - NASA’s Female Pioneers, see http://rocket-women.com/2016/03/nasas-
female-pioneers-women-from-history-you-should-know/
She Can Code blog “How Diversity Made My Team More Successful, see https://shecancode.io/
blog/whydiversityimprovesteamwork
The Current State of Women in Computer Science, see http://www.computerscience.org/
resources/women-in-computer-science/