Language Matters! Let’s Drop 'He or She' and Say More with Less

Hello all,

Language matters! What we say, what we write, what we pass on to future generations.

And how we routinely assign the male default to business, educational, and political leaders and some types of work and professions influences our unconscious minds in ways that reinforces the male default. It happens to me all the time.
I'm trying to interrupt those defaults, so I was excited to read this tip from the Better Allies newsletter about reducing gendered language.
This is a simple and effective way for workplaces to reduce the potential for reinforcing gender stereotypes or creating gender restrictions where none exists.

Something we can all do!

Here's the tip from Karen Catlin:

Rewrite binary-gendered phrases
In 2023, Dictionary.com updated its lexicon with new words to reflect the “always-evolving nature of English.” The organization also updated hundreds of entries to remove binary-gendered phrases like his or her and he or she. “In many cases, such phrases were replaced with their, they, or similar words. In other cases, entries were simply rewritten to avoid using a pronoun at all.”

I like that last option a lot.

For example, the previous definition of volunteer was “a person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for a service or undertaking.” Dictionary.com revised it to “a person who voluntarily offers to perform a service or undertaking.”

I see binary-gendered phrases pop up now and then. The other day, while searching for an email from a friend, I got the message, “You and <name> traded 3 messages in August 2023. You first sent him or her a message regarding <subject>.” That last sentence could have been simply, “You first sent a message regarding <subject>.”

I also get the occasional email titled “Dear Sir or Madam.” A more inclusive and updated version would be “Dear Colleague.”

Review your organization’s email and document templates, content repositories, or user interface messages for binary-gendered phrases. And advocate for them to be updated to use a more inclusive term or rewritten not to use a pronoun at all.

All the best,
Holly

The Role of Feedback

Hello all,

This week we are focusing on feedback — what it is at its best, why we all need it, what can go wrong, and how to make it better. That's a lot, I know, but this is important!

Point 1: We grow through feedback we can handle.

We can give ourselves feedback by working on our self-reflection skills, listening to our biofeedback (our bodies sending us signals of warning and positive reinforcement — this can involve monitoring technology but doesn't need to), and revisiting our past experiences to see how they shaped our present.

We can accept feedback from trusted supervisors, family, and community members who clearly have our best interests at heart, and who can shape their feedback to suit our needs.

Point 2: We shrink from feedback that's too much, too harsh, too disconnected from our goals — or simply wrong.

We can be our own worst critics, with self-talk that is more destructive than we would ever give to someone else, and we can ignore all the biofeedback that makes us uncomfortable.

Others can misread our actions, intentions, or fail to properly assess our performance, and then their feedback only tells us that there is a disconnect — but doesn't guide us towards a more productive outcome.

Point 3: We can all get better at this!

• As employees: Ask for feedback that is specific, clear, and provides growth and improvement directions and metrics.
• As colleagues: Promote a culture of everyday check-ins that make regular feedback loops routine and natural.
• As supervisors: Intentionally structure feedback so that it's focused on growth and tailored to each individual's communication and career needs.
• As members of the human family: Strive to be open to feedback, regularly ask for it, and provide it with care and positive intent.

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The Essential Role of Feedback in the Workplace in Employee Development

"Feedback in the workplace is crucial for nurturing a culture that values growth and active participation. It plays a pivotal role in helping both individuals and teams evolve, aligning their efforts with the broader objectives of their organization."

Be Kinder to Yourself

"Talking to yourself with self-compassion will help you deal with a raft of challenging situations, including those you experience personally and those you need to help your employees or kids through. To use it effectively, follow these practices to build specific, personalized habits of self-compassionate talk: give yourself a gentle and supportive nudge by asking yourself what you need in the moment; use irreverence to challenge your beliefs; reframe a trait or tendency to take a more balanced view; identify your patterns of self-sabotage; borrow language from friends, quotes, or proverbs; and write scripts for common scenarios."

How to Give Constructive Feedback in the Workplace

"Constructive feedback is a tool designed to promote growth by focusing on specific actions or behaviors, offering actionable suggestions, and maintaining a respectful tone. It aims to improve performance and foster a collaborative environment... Studies have shown that employees are more likely to engage positively with feedback when it is delivered in a constructive manner, emphasizing future opportunities rather than past failures. Mastering the art of constructive feedback can help managers build trust, encourage development, and improve team performance."

How Effective Feedback Fuels Performance

"Employees are hungry for performance feedback from their leaders, managers and peers. They want to gain insights that advance their abilities and future potential. And more than ever, employee feedback is pivotal for engagement. Gallup data show that 80% of employees who say they have received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged."

How to Recognize “Hidden Feedback”

"The gap between the feedback leaders need and the feedback they actually hear represents one of the most significant yet addressable barriers to leadership effectiveness. By developing the skills to detect hidden feedback cues, create psychological safety for honest dialogue, listen with genuine curiosity, and reward candor, leaders can transform these seemingly ordinary exchanges into extraordinary growth opportunities. In business environments where adaptation is paramount, leaders who systematically uncover and leverage hidden feedback gain an unmatched competitive advantage: They see around corners others miss, repair cracks before they become chasms, and build the kind of trust-based cultures that withstand the most challenging circumstances."

Feedback can help mitigate equity gaps if we use it to help everyone thrive.

So, WIT members…
What are your best tips for getting or giving feedback?
What resources would you recommend?
Send your thoughts to the list (or to me) so that we can all learn more.

All the best,
Holly

Allyship with Integrity

Hello all,

This spring we have celebrated Ramadan, have just celebrated Passover, many are about to celebrate Easter, and on my campus students and faculty are getting ready for a Holi festival (it's just too cold in Plattsburgh in March!), Earth Day, and Holocaust Remembrance Day.

This week we are focusing on allyship and antisemitism. It's critical that we all learn more about how to recognize and push back against vilification of all marginalized groups, and to reaffirm our support for our entire community. SUNY is a diverse university, located in diverse communities, with a shared mission of educating and uplifting all the people we serve. We all have access to professional development on antidiscrimination and SUNY policies, and I know that I've referenced other specific antisemitism resources in past WIT posts. Make sure that you are up-to-date on all the required and optional training that your institution provides.

The WIT vision is that "all members of the SUNY diversified IT community are achieving at their highest potential." As part of our work to ensure that women and non-binary identifying folks can achieve, let's make sure that we keep growing in our understanding of how to prevent harmful discrimination of all kinds against all peoples. Allies who work to counter discrimination also need to guard against going too far, to where their efforts intended as allyship could cause harm. It's not helpful or wise to advance the safety of one group at the expense of others. We have thousands of years of history to show that societies do not fare well when communities are fractured with small group loyalties and fears.

Guard against overgeneralizing:

"Being aware of the signs of overgeneralizing is the first step to avoiding it. This includes using words such as 'always', 'never', 'all', 'none', 'every', or 'no one' to describe a group, situation, or behavior, as well as ignoring or dismissing evidence that contradicts your generalization. Additionally, relying on stereotypes, anecdotes, or personal experiences to make general claims and assuming that what is true for some cases is true for all cases is a surefire way to overgeneralize. If you find yourself feeling confident or certain about your generalization without checking its validity or accuracy, it's important to pause and question your reasoning and assumptions."

Guard against oversimplifying:

"Oversimplification is a logical fallacy that refers to the act of reducing the complexity of a subject or issue to the point where essential details or nuances are lost or overlooked. This can lead to misunderstandings, misinterpretations, or incomplete perspectives on complex issues. It may cause poor decision-making, misinformed beliefs, or a lack of appreciation for underlying nuances and intricacies."

Guard against dangerous speech:

"No one has ever been born hating or fearing other people. That has to be taught – and those harmful lessons seem to be similar, though they’re given in highly disparate cultures, languages, and places. Leaders have used particular kinds of rhetoric to turn groups of people violently against one another throughout human history, by demonizing and denigrating others. Vocabulary varies, but the same themes recur: members of other groups are depicted as threats so serious that violence against them comes to seem acceptable or even necessary. Such language (or images or any other form of communication) is what we have termed “dangerous speech.”

"To predict violence by another group is especially powerful (whether the threat is real, false, or exaggerated) since it makes violence against that group seem defensive and necessary. In this sense, accusation in a mirror is a collective analogue of the defense to homicide that is available in virtually all legal systems: self-defense. To believe that you, your family, your group, or even your culture faces an existential threat from another group makes violence to fend off that threat seem not only acceptable (as dehumanization does), but necessary."

All the best,
Holly

Stand Up for Libraries: Advocacy Starts with You

Hello all,

This is National Library Week and libraries need your support!

Libraries provide early literacy and foundational learning resources, leisure reading and lectures, digital access to help bridge the remaining digital divide, community connections, workforce development programs, technology fluency training, and so much more!
Our modern academic libraries exist for the purpose of curating and then sharing resources to enhance the teaching, research, and service missions of our universities. Our SUNY libraries are places for study, research, group gatherings, textbook access, part-time jobs, and fun activities that help students and faculty feel at home on our campuses. Most of our libraries are open to the public, especially those with government document collections - collections that belong to all the people.

From the American Library Association website: "Book challenges and censorship efforts are still on the rise, and federal funding is under threat. These challenges don’t just impact libraries—they impact all of us.
This year, we’re asking you to show up at your library—and show up for your library. Stand with your community to defend the freedom to read and celebrate what makes libraries essential."

• Contact your members of Congress by phone or email and ask them to protect federal library funding.
• Sign up to receive advocacy alerts.
• Become a Supporter of the American Library Association.

The right to an education, and access to the learning resources that education requires, is one of the rights that underpins our efforts to ensure equity for Women in Technology.

All the best,
Holly

Better Allies Snippet #3

This month we're finishing out Chapter 3, with the last section focused on combating the bystander effect as an ally. Catlin covers three different situations to illustrate how allies can transition from bystanders to upstanders.

Situation One (p. 53)

Three co-workers are discussing the Black Lives Matter movement. A white co-worker interjects with “all lives matter,” which, although technically true, dismisses the intent behind the Black Lives Matter movement—highlighting the neglect and disrespect black lives receive. This shuts down the conversation, making a black colleague feel unheard and disrespected, while another colleague remains silent. Catlin suggests employing the technique of "seeking common ground then educating," explaining that the focus on black lives is due to their undervaluation, not superiority.

Situation Two

Several coworkers are in a car. Referring to one colleague's bright orange nail polish, a manager says, “you people love your bright colors,” and continues joking about black people's color preferences. A bystander remains silent out of discomfort. An upstander might instead ask the manager to clarify or point out that people of all backgrounds enjoy bright colors. Acting as an upstander could significantly improve workplace inclusivity.

Situation Three

While consulting for an organization seeking to improve research lab staff diversity, Catlin discovered a recent lunch outing was at a strip club. Recognizing not everyone would feel comfortable there, an upstander could have suggested an alternative, inclusive venue. Events should broadly appeal to all members, and inclusivity requires actively asking, listening, and responding to colleagues’ preferences.

Steps for Becoming an Upstander (pp. 55-56)

1. Be Ready: Identify yourself as someone willing and ready to speak up.
2. Verbalize What You're Seeing: Clearly point out biased behaviors or language, without accusations. Example: “Susan, you're classifying an entire gender/ethnicity/group derogatorily. Is that intentional?”
3. Compare to Past Behavior: Highlight inconsistencies with past behavior to alert others about inappropriate conduct. Example: “Jim, I've always seen you as fair-minded. I'm surprised by your remark, which sounds biased.”
4. Set Boundaries: Clearly state behavior limits. Example: “Don't tell racist jokes around me,” or “I don’t tolerate homophobic remarks at work.”
5. Create a Template: Use email or digital media templates to respond efficiently and assertively, preserving your emotional energy.

Catlin emphasizes that discriminatory behaviors can happen anywhere. Often, organizational leaders react defensively, believing bias doesn't occur within their own teams. Accepting bias as a reality we must address is critical for personal and organizational growth. Denying bias prevents learning and improvement. Allies must remain open and committed to continuous learning.

Catlin concludes by reinforcing that allyship involves advocacy and action built upon listening and learning.

Until next month—be well and keep learning!

Bridging the Gaps: Gender Equity in STEM and Cybersecurity

Hello all,

Happy April!
This week I want to highlight again the Women in Academia newsletter and draw your attention to 2 reports in their most recent edition.

1. The Gender Gap in STEM Majors is Shrinking at Top Universities and Growing at Other Institutions. This is some good news, although the gender gap persists and still needs our attention. The report makes clear however that even more work is needed to close other gaps...
   "Notably, the authors highlight that women of color continue to remain significantly underrepresented in physics, engineering, and computer science, even at institutions where the gender balance is improving. To reverse these negative trends, the authors suggest federal, state, and local programs aimed at improving gender diversity in STEM should allocate more resources to less selective institutions. They also suggest that increasing faculty gender diversity and expanding partnerships between colleges and organizations dedicated to advancing women’s equality could encourage more women to pursue STEM degrees."
2. Women Represent Less Than a Quarter of the Global Cybersecurity Workforce. This is bad news, and will have negative impacts on our successful cyber protections for years to come. According to the report:
   "This shortfall in cybersecurity professionals could be significantly improved by recruiting new talent and promoting diversity in the field. Although women represent 36 percent of all technology-related roles, they are vastly underrepresented in the cybersecurity workforce, comprising less than a quarter of all professionals in the field. Even in the Americas, where the majority of the world’s cybersecurity vendors are located, women are just 25.4 percent of the overall workforce. In Asia Pacific, Europe, and Africa, women represent 24.8 percent, 22.4 percent, and 13.5 percent of cybersecurity workers, respectively."

Our SUNY colleges and universities have a role to play in maintaining forward advancements in both these areas, and all of us can help by supporting our degree offerings, encouraging promising students to pursue these areas of study, and in making sure that programs and services supporting underrepresented students are maintained.

And of course—many SUNY employees are also SUNY students! If you or a colleague are considering an additional degree or credential...please consider SUNY!!

All the best,

Holly