Episode #25
NYC Women in Tech on Equality, Work-Life Balance
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
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“ A lot of times, we take ourselves off the playing field, to use a guy analogy."— Cynthia Schames, Performance Horizon Group
Two high-powered women in tech — Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg — are leading the debate about women, equality in the workplace and work-life balance.
This week on New Tech City, WNYC reporter Anna Sale talks to women in New York City's tech scene about what they think of the messages coming down from on high.
Mayer recently disallowed telecommuting in order to increase innovation, and Sandberg is encouraging women to work harder to break the glass ceiling. Her forthcoming book Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead will be available March 11.
Sandberg has received praise and criticism in recent weeks, and there's no shortage of both around the water coolers of Silicon Alley.
"I think she’s absolutely correct that we do need to lean in," said Cynthia Schames, senior business development executive at Performance Horizon Group. "A lot of times, we take ourselves off the playing field, to use a guy analogy."
"I think it’s quite bullying to say that the onus is on women to change the nature of the workplace today, and that it’s up to us to step up," said Rachael Ellison, founder of REworking Parents, which helps families and individuals balance work and life.
Also on this week's episode, New Tech City host Manoush Zomorodi gets on the Startup Bus with New York City entrepreneurs and hackers as they embark on a 72-hour odyssey to conceive, build and launch a startup on their way to the annual SXSW Interactive technology conference in Austin, Texas.
You can talk to the "bus-preneurs" on Twitter Tuesday morning. New Tech City is hosting a Tweet Chat with them at 11 a.m. for an update on how the trip is progressing. On Twitter, search for the handles @StartupBusNYC, @NewTechCity, @Manoushz, and @danielptucker.
Or, type in the hashtag #Startupbus.
- WNYC Presents: How Tech is Changing the Way Women Work
- A Titan's How-To on Breaking the Glass Ceiling
- Suddenly, Sheryl Sandberg's Critics Care About Working Class Women
- Tweet Chat with the Hackers and Entrepreneurs of Startup Bus NYC
- Blog: Breaking Down Reactions to Marissa and Sheryl
Hosted by:
Manoush ZomorodiEditors:
Charlie HermanContributors:
Anna Sale
Redesigning NYC's 11,412 Payphones for the Digital Age
The 11 semifinalists in the Bloomberg administration's Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge imagined payphone kiosks with air pollution sensors, solar-powered cell phone chargers and screens controlled by hand gestures and voice commands.
Comments [3]
Hi Cynthia: That's what I suspected--air quotes *are* hard to hear over the radio. :)
Rock on, and keeping making trouble.
Hi Martha, thanks for the comment. My comment was made in a context which unfortunately didn't make it into the edited piece; Anna and I had spoken earlier about concepts such as "guy analogies", so "playing field" was said with definite air quotes around it.
Thanks again for reading/listening--and for the right-ons about learning to code, and building a business. It's hard work, but I think women make some pretty amazing entrepreneurs!
Best,
Cynthia
Why is "playing field" a "guy analogy?" Title IX is over 40 years old. I understand what Schames means (and right on to her coding and her business venture), but...it still makes me sad.
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