What I love most about business and the world we live in today is the velocity and the digital possibility created from that speed.
It’s thrilling to watch how quickly brands can take hold and scale, and it’s exhilarating to be a part of business in this day and age.
So an email hits my inbox a few weeks ago. It’s a new organic kind of healthy marketplace called Thrive Market, and because I’m kind of into organic and healthy things I click through. I download the app and I look around. Looks good. Good design. Good layout. Good navigation. And then I get to a category called ‘Mums’.
Intrigued, I click through and you guessed it. It’s full of nappies, baby supplies, baby food and related products. I look for a section called ‘Dads’ and can’t find it. I take a deep breath, find the customer service button and type this:
Hey team,
Just downloaded the app – congrats, it looks great! – but wanted to pass on the first thing that struck me. Under ‘Moms’ you’ve got diapers and other great baby related products, but are these products only for Moms? Do fathers not change diapers too? Is parenting only a mother’s responsibility?
The messaging is subtle of course but that’s exactly what unconscious bias is – subtle and not intentionally discriminate.
Really, really disappointed to see this. Can’t help but think you’ve just sent women back about 30 years and would love to hear your thoughts.
Warmest wishes,
Emma Isaacs
I waited for their response for a day, and nothing. I waited a few more days, and nothing. I waited a week and am still waiting.
The thing is this: If you have a pretty much all-male tech team (I’m making a big assumption here of course that Thrive’s tech team are close to all-male), then this is going to happen time and time again, and not much will shift.
We recently had the extraordinary Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code, speak at the Business Chicks Leadership Gathering on Necker Island with Virgin Unite. Reshma pointed out that five years from now there’ll be 1.4 million jobs in tech in the US and women will fill only 3% of these. Quite extraordinary, really.
For any industry to thrive (pardon the pun) we need more equity and we need people calling out unconscious bias. We’ve got work to do here. And so do you Thrive Market.
The article first appeared on Business Chicks’ US website.