Given national advocacy for the #blacklivesmatter movement, I’m hearing a lot of folks looking for ways to increase their allyship.
I took some time to reflecting on my own efforts and considered them against Twitter’s published Inclusion & Diversity Report.
Previous published targets have aimed to increase workforce representation for under-represented minorities, specifically Black and Latinx, and Women.
I started by focusing on these targets and created the following self-evaluation to help me track my own individual progress on inclusion and diversity as an engineering leader. I opted to include LGBTQ and gender non-binary as well.
My personal goal is to have multiple examples per category over the course of my career. I chose the areas that I consistently hear from underrepresented people as the biggest career obstacles: finding a mentor, getting hired, and getting promoted.
Have you ever actively mentored:
- A Black person
- A Latinx person
- A woman
- An LGBTQ person
- A gender non-binary person
Have you ever directly hired:
- A Black person
- A Latinx person
- A woman
- An LGBTQ person
- A gender non-binary person
Have you ever promoted (or strongly advocated for promotion):
- A Black person
- A Latinx person
- A woman
- An LGBTQ person
- A gender non-binary person
My hope is that sharing my list, which could be customized and expanded to more/other underrepresented groups, helps others interested in self-accountability for various forms of active allyship. More ideas on how to sponsor underrepresented folks here.
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Kathleen Codes 