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Slate Technology

What Next TBD: Why Tech Lays Women Off First

Slate Technology

Slate

Society & Culture, Technology, History

4.6636 Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When the tech industry started rounds of layoffs this year, almost half of the people let go were women—even though they make up a much smaller percentage of the workforce. What does this say about women in tech, and efforts to diversify the industry overall? Guest: Emma Goldberg, a reporter who covers the future of work for the New York Times. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Okay everyone, so look at the numbers from Q1 and you'll see that there's a sharp...

0:04.0

Alex? Oh, I think you're frozen.

0:07.0

And that's why it's crucial that we mean.

0:09.0

E! That sounded important.

0:11.0

Because if we don't act now...

0:13.0

We've lost him.

0:14.0

Bring an end to work call interruptions with EE Wi-Fi Enhancer.

0:18.0

More work from homers are choosing EEE broadband, the UK's fastest growing

0:23.4

broadband provider. And he's back. So I hope that was all clear. To verify I see EE.com.com.

0:30.5

Just a heads up before we get started, there's some lights wearing in this episode. Okay, here's a show.

0:40.7

I left a stable job while I was pregnant, nonetheless, and took a chance to essentially work

0:48.2

at a dream company in a dream role. And I remember even saying that in the interview

0:53.0

process at Amazon. And I was like,

0:54.5

look, I'm nervous. I'm pregnant. Like, are you guys sure about this? That's Nadine Salim,

1:01.5

describing her excitement and fear after landing a job at Amazon last year. She had quit a different

1:08.5

job, a good job by her account at another company to take on a role on Amazon's brand team.

1:15.7

And she did it at a vulnerable time when she was expecting a baby.

1:19.3

But Amazon, like so many tech companies, had great maternity leave benefits.

1:24.2

Generous leave meant, in part, to attract women to jobs in a male-dominated industry.

1:29.6

So Nadine was feeling pretty good a few months later when she finally went out on her maternity leave.

1:35.2

Then, just weeks into her time away, with her newborn at home, she checked her work email.

1:42.2

I wake up and I see my mail app, which is what I had used to have my work email, went from, I don't know, hundreds of emails down to one.

...

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