Career Girls

There is no better day than today to celebrate America’s diversity. At Career Girls, we have honor of celebrating the achievement and accomplishments of women from every ethnic and racial group and from every region of our country. We know from our work that no group of humans has a “lock” on intellect, drive and success. We counter every stereotype imaginable and have over 8,000 video clips to back us up. 

 

Diversity and inclusion are especially top of mind today as I join a panel of judges reviewing applications submitted to the first annual MIT IDE Inclusive Innovation Competition. This competition is part of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE), which examines how people will work together in the new digital economy. I am honored to support the goal of increasing solutions to help close the digital divide.

 

Additionally, the July/August 2016 Harvard Business Review presented several insightful articles on diversity – what works and what does not. One article, “Designing a Bias-Free Organization” concludes that a successful way to increase diversity is to eliminate the opportunity for bias. It specifically referenced ground breaking work by our economist role model, Cecilia Rouse, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and a former member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors. 

 

While at Harvard, Dr. Rouse and her colleague, Claudia Golden, designed a study where musicians auditioning for jobs with American Symphony Orchestras, played behind a curtain so that their gender was unknown. As you can probably guess, the number of women musicians increased dramatically. To watch her discuss the study in more detail, click on the video below. Watch her entire interview on CareerGirls.Org. 

 

We also believe eliminating bias helps level the playing field for inclusion and diversity. Because our role models, by their very existence, add to a landscape that challenges bias, stereotypes and racism, I cannot think of a better way to spend my life. 

 

Happy Birthday, America!