Living an Authentic Life

This week we are focusing on gender inclusivity, and I've located a really interesting, short, and occasionally humorous video that brings forward some important issues.

The importance of living an authentic life, the importance of generously accepting others as they are, the importance of growing and changing our viewpoints as we gain new experiences and new information, and the importance of trying to see life through others perspectives.

I hope you enjoy watching this, and will take some time to learn more about how to support the transgender community that is part of our larger community.

Start here for more information: Transgender Day of Visibility

Watch the video: I've lived as a man & a woman -- here's what I learned | Paula Stone Williams | TEDxMileHigh

And get ready for the next Women's History Month Trivia Game!!

All the best,
Holly

WIT Weekly Wisdom: A message for SUNY WIT list subscribers on the topics of Connecting, Learning, Stretching, Teaching, Reaching, and Balancing.

Have a suggestion for a WIT Weekly Wisdom message? Contact Holly Heller-Ross at hellerhb@plattsburgh.edu

Past and current posts are available on the SUNY WIT Weekly Blog.

Join the SUNY Women in Technology (WIT) listserv, send an email to: lyris@ls.suny.edu with the phrase “subscribe suny-wit” as the body of the message.

March Madness and the Grass Ceiling

This week's focus is on NCAA Basketball March Madness. It's fun, it's exciting, and it draws lots of attention. Of course, while we are working to advance the success of women in technology related fields, women in all aspects of life are experiencing their own struggles, including women in sports.

While we have mentioned the glass ceiling, concrete ceiling, and sticky floor phenomena on this list, I recently learned about the term "the grass ceiling", where women in sport at all levels are regularly limited in their ability to succeed and held back by inequitable investments in their teams. While federal Title IX legislation in 1972 has made a huge difference, it has not been enough! This issue was described by Eimear Ryan (sports columnist with the Irish Examiner) in her 2023 award-winning book The Grass Ceiling, discussed here in a short and informative interview.

We can support women in other areas of equity work, and we can also learn from their challenges and successes. Here is my brief analysis of some lessons we can learn:

1. Speaking up can force change: This happened in 2021, "When college women basketball players began to post photos and videos of how they got less food, less accurate COVID-19 testing and less exercise equipment in the NCAA March Madness Tournament bubbles than their male counterparts, a sense of collective outrage ensued."
2. Investment can yield results: "Jadrian Wooten, a Virginia Tech collegiate associate professor in the Department of Economics, explains how investment and interest in women’s basketball has created a 'virtuous cycle' spurring growth in one another to help close the gender equity gap. 'If there’s an increase in financial support, that can be reinvested in improving the sport’s quality,' says Wooten. 'As quality increases, so does viewership, which attracts more advertising and sponsorship. It creates a self-reinforcing loop, where each element of success builds on and magnifies the others, leading to a brighter future for women's college basketball.'
3. Collective action works: "What is really important is that it demonstrates to the players that when you do this en masse, as a collective, you’re also safe. Don’t get me wrong, I love it that players speak out and they use their voice to advocate for change, but many of them do so at the sacrifice or risk of their careers. We can advocate for change on your behalf and keep you protected, you don’t have to stick your neck out in order for there to be structural change when we’re talking about equality and compensation and things like that." The Collective tracks even more data in multiple sports and the data show that "Despite a recent rise in salaries and prize money, systemic inequities related to revenue, infrastructure, and media coverage continue to drive major discrepancies between professional men’s and women’s playing earnings." The Women's Sports Foundation acts in a collective way to speak out, support, and take action. The foundation was "established in 1974 to advance the lives of women and girls through sports and physical activity. Our mission is to enable all girls and women to reach their potential in sports and life."

So, think about how you can take these three lessons, and (while you are enjoying the fun of March Madness), consider how you/we can:

1. speak up for women in IT to help force the changes we all need,
2. make investments that will create self-reinforcing loops that amplify successes, and
3. take collective actions in SUNY to make progress on building equitable gender-inclusive organizations.

Finally, looking to next week: Maria Garrity sent this to me to share with all of you:
Calling all IT Women, There will be a virtual session on Wednesday March 27th at noon. Join the SpeakIT-WomensForum. The event is geared towards women to discuss and share challenges, concerns, and to network and more. A Flyer is below.

All the best,
Holly

---

WIT Weekly Wisdom: A message for SUNY WIT list subscribers on the topics of Connecting, Learning, Stretching, Teaching, Reaching, and Balancing. Have a suggestion for a WIT Weekly Wisdom message? Contact Holly Heller-Ross @ hellerhb@plattsburgh.edu

Past and current posts are available on the SUNY WIT Weekly Blog.

Join the SUNY Women in Technology (WIT) listserv, send an email to: lyris@ls.suny.edu with the phrase “subscribe suny-wit” as the body of the message.

Maximize your Work Breaks

This week is focused on maximizing work breaks or cyclical work slowdown opportunities.

As many of us approach our college spring breaks here are some tips for managing that time depending on what your situation is and what you really need. These are not formal resources, they are easy reads that I've located through web searches.

• When you are taking time off, by yourself, traveling with family or friends, or as a caregiver,
• When you struggle with disconnecting even on vacation,
• When you aren't taking time off but work is slower,
• When you have to cover at work while others around you are taking time off.

And also... information overload is real, and the work of managing our resources can be a significant drain on our time and energy. Of course, I hope that you've been a SUNY WIT subscriber for a long time and have saved every message from this list, and will happily run a search of your saved messages, but of course, that's not very efficient! Happily there is now something better.

The new SUNY WIT Weekly Blog is an easy way to look back through WIT posts for that resource you half remember and want to access now. Created and maintained by the SUNY WIT team, the Blog gathers WIT posts, SICAS Culture Code Snippets, and NYSERNet Women in IT resources in one location. It's easy to bookmark and search and will provide an archive of resources. The archive is not yet complete (as it will take time), but it is ready for use!

Finally, don't forget to play our SUNY WIT Women's History Month Trivia, as soon as Dariann sends out this week's link!

All the best,
Holly

---

WIT Weekly Wisdom: A message for SUNY WIT list subscribers on the topics of Connecting, Learning, Stretching, Teaching, Reaching, and Balancing. Have a suggestion for a WIT Weekly Wisdom message? Contact Holly Heller-Ross @ hellerhb@plattsburgh.edu

Past and current posts are available on the SUNY WIT Weekly Blog.

Join the SUNY Women in Technology (WIT) listserv, send an email to: lyris@ls.suny.edu with the phrase “subscribe suny-wit” as the body of the message.

Build Safety

WIT Updates The Culture Code: Snippet #2 - Build Safety

SICAS March Update

There is a lot of talk about safety these days, and rightly so. According to Daniel Coyle in The Culture Code book, safety among teams is the first of the three big skills that create successful groups. The three big skills are:

1. Build Safety
2. Share Vulnerability, and
3. Establish Purpose

And he calls them skills because they can be learned and implemented. They are not innate characteristics. That's good news for all of us.

In chapter 1, p10-11, Coyle lays out the concepts of belonging cues, based on research conducted by Oren Lederman at MIT. His research supposes that before oral language, humans used other signals to cue each other into a sense of cohesion and safety as we evolved and formed our societies, that these cues are still in use by our unconscious brains, and that they can be seen in cohesive groups today. They can also be missing in groups that are not cohesive and where some people are not feeling safe. The research draws on group observations and on experiments to see how changes in belonging cues impact the group feel and the group outcomes. As Coyle summarizes " Belonging cues are behaviors that create safe connection in groups. They include, among others, proximity, eye contact, energy, mimicry, turn taking, body language, consistency of emphasis, and whether everyone talks to everyone else in the group. Like any language, belonging cues can't be reduced to an isolated moment, but rather consist of a steady pulse of interactions within a social relationship."

Wow...and didn't COVID throw a wrench into all of that? Haven't we all been trying to build back our student populations and their feelings of belonging? And aren't we all finding our way through this new world of remote/hybrid/on-campus work teams? I am confident we can take this information from The Culture Code and use it to be more intentional about how we signal belonging to the diverse teams that IT needs in order to carry us into the future. Think about these belonging cues in your next [meeting/interview/office social gathering/casual office chat/zoom or teams meeting or work session]. Take note of who is making eye contact with who, who is talking, how carefully are speakers being listened to, what kinds of energy are being projected into the group and how is that being received? How are ideas presented and who gets to present ideas? How safe does that meeting feel to you? How safe do you think it is for everyone else? What, if anything, could be changed for the better? Observe a few group events and then ask yourself whether there are some updates needed.

As we work to update the culture code to replace outdated behaviors with ones that work better for everyone, creating a culture of group safety will be the first step. Coincidently, I had gathered a few resources on creating psychological safety back in December for the SUNY WIT list, and you can locate that now on the SUNY WIT Blog

#InspireInclusion

Welcome to March 2024 and Women's History Month! #InspireInclusion

There is a lot to celebrate about our progress and our contributions, along with a whole lot more to do, and this month will provide great opportunities for us all to participate in.

First, plan to celebrate International Women's Day, Friday March 8th somehow on your campus or with your colleagues.

Our Plattsburgh events are happening today and include a social media photo opportunity organized by our campus WIT interest group and our DEI Office, and a speaker brought in by the Gender and Women's Studies department.

The Theme for International Women's Day 2024 is #InspireInclusion.

"When we inspire others to understand and value women's inclusion, we forge a better world. And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there's a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment. Collectively, let's forge a more inclusive world for women. When women aren't present, we must ask: "If not, why not?" When women are discriminated against, we must call out poor practice. When the treatment of women is not equitable, we must take action. And we must do this each time, every time. To truly include women means to openly embrace their diversity of race, age, ability, faith, body image, and how they identify. Worldwide, women must be included in all fields of endeavour. "

Second, Dariann Zielinski at New Paltz is offering us a WIT Women's History Trivia. This is going to be fun! Weekly questions, cute little prizes, and all for WIT subscribers. Dariann will update us all when it's ready. We'll all have a chance to show our knowledge, learn even more, and engage in a friendly competition.

Third, SUNY is offering a webinar for International Women's Day | Women in STEM Panel I Friday March 8 (see details below). SUNY’s Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development is hosting an International Women’s Day "thought-provoking panel discussion celebrating women's contributions to the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)." Register online

All the best,

Holly