Emily Chang > Quotes

“The unfortunate truth is that right now men's voices dominate and we see the results. Popular products from the tech boom - including violent and sexist video games that a generation of children has become addicted to - are designed with little to no input from women. Apple's first version of its highly touted health application could track your blood-alcohol level but not menstruation. Everything from plus-sized smart phones to artificial hearts have been build at a size better suited to male anatomy. As of late 2016, if you told one of the virtual assistants like Siri, S Voice, and Google Now, 'I'm having a heart attack,' you'd immediately get valuable information about what to do next. If you were to say, 'I'm being raped,' or 'I'm being abused by my husband,' the attractive (usually) female voice would say, 'I don't understand what this is.”
― Emily Chang

“Is this a true gender gap? Maybe, but not necessarily. There is evidence to suggest that women choose lower-cost-of-entry, lower-growth sectors simply because they have fewer resources available to them. Not only are women less likely to receive venture capital than men, but they are also less likely to have business loan and credit applications approved. That said, the data also shows that women ask for smaller amounts of credit and hesitate to take on more debt. The author Sharon Hadary, who has closely studied entrepreneurship, says men tend to set bigger goals for growth while women focus instead on making their business sustainable. Hadary believes the problem is twofold: “First, you have women’s own self-limiting views of themselves, their businesses and the opportunities available to them. But equally problematic are the stereotypes, perceptions and expectations of business . . . leaders.”
― Emily Chang, Brotopya: Silikon Vadisi'nin Erkekler Kulübünü Dagitmak

“It’s hard not to be inspired and hopeful listening to these young women’s dreams. The girls are already knowledgeable about some of the headwinds that they will face when they open the door to Brotopia. I didn’t feel comfortable telling them about the others. They’ll find out soon enough. What they made clearer than ever was this: The next generation is coming. They expect to have rewarding careers in tech, and they dream of making a dent in the universe, just as the early founders did. When they open the door, let’s welcome them. And change the Valley—and the world—for them and for all.”
― Emily Chang, Brotopya: Silikon Vadisi'nin Erkekler Kulübünü Dagitmak

“VCs will argue that many female entrepreneurs are guilty of underselling themselves. Investors have told me that women often focus on pitching their skills, data, and metrics rather than selling a big vision, something men are more comfortable doing. That vision may be grandiose and nearly impossible to achieve, but it sure sounds good. Investors want to fund outsize successes, and telling a good story is critical. That’s why you will often hear investors say they fund people instead of ideas.”
― Emily Chang, Brotopya: Silikon Vadisi'nin Erkekler Kulübünü Dagitmak

“VCs want to hear a visionary pitch, the story of a billion-dollar opportunity that will justify the financial risk required to make it happen. But if a woman does make a visionary pitch, VCs are prone to doubt that she will be able to bring that vision to life. With men, they are more willing to believe that the sky’s the limit.”
― Emily Chang, Brotopya: Silikon Vadisi'nin Erkekler Kulübünü Dagitmak

“When she replied that she was going to a meeting for Girls Who Code, the boy scoffed, "Why isn't there a Guys Who Code?" Wong exclaimed, "The entire world is Guys Who Code!”
― Emily Chang

“VCs want to believe in an entrepreneur’s idea, but they want to believe even more in that entrepreneur’s willingness to think big and drive to succeed at any cost.”
― Emily Chang, Brotopya: Silikon Vadisi'nin Erkekler Kulübünü Dagitmak

“There may be cracks in the Silicon Ceiling, but it is far from shattered.”
― Emily Chang

“Getting to fifty-fifty is incredibly complex and nuanced, requiring many detailed solutions that will take decades to fully play out. To accelerate the process, change needs to start at the top. Like Stewart Butterfield, CEOs need to make hiring and retaining women an explicit priority. In addition, here is the bare minimum of what we can do at an individual and a systemic level: First of all, people, be nice to each other. Treat one another with respect and dignity, including those of the opposite sex.That should be pretty simple. Don’t enable assholes. Stop making excuses for bad behavior, or ignoring it. CEOs must embrace and champion the need to reach a fair representation of gender within their companies, and develop a comprehensive plan to get there. Be long-term focused, not short-term. It may take three weeks to find a white man for the job, but three months to find a woman. Those three months could save three years of playing catch-up in the future. Invest in not just diversity but inclusion. Even if your company is small, everything counts. And take the time to educate your employees about why this is important. Companies need to appoint more women to their boards. And boards need to hold company leadership to account to get to fifty-fifty in their employee ranks, starting with company executives. Venture capital firms need to hire more women partners, and limited partners should pressure them to do so and, at the very least, ask them what their plans around diversity are. Investors, both men and women, need to start funding more women and diverse teams, period. LPs need to fund more women VCs, who can establish new firms with new cultural norms. Stop funding partnerships that look and act the same. Most important, stop blaming everybody else for the problem or pretending that it is too hard for us to solve. It’s time to look in the mirror. This is an industry, after all, that prides itself on disruption and revolutionary new ways of thinking. Let’s put that spirit of innovation and embrace of radical change to good use. Seeing a more inclusive workforce in Silicon Valley will encourage more girls and women studying computer science now.”
― Emily Chang, Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley

“In Silicon Valley, if you're not a white man, your identity is a ball and chain, from which you cannot escape.”
― Emily Chang

“What these companies need is a tech-savvy workforce with a deep empathetic understanding of people's behaviors, interactions, and preferences. For new technologies like these to reach their potential, they simply must be created by teams with a diverse set of perspectives.”
― Emily Chang

“Our work is important but rarely is it the most important thing in our lives. Companies usually survive just fine without your putting in those extra twenty hours when you could be eating dinner with your family, sleeping, or going for a run. By hiring employees with different lives and different work styles, tech companies could engender new perspectives and creativity. And they would give employees the ability to have a longer-term perspective, not just for their own lives, but for whatever product they're rolling out.”
― Emily Chang

“This finding suggests that when a man proposes a business idea, he can typically expect others to respond on the basis of a simple risk-benefit calculation, the kind any venture capitalist might make when deciding whether to help finance a project. But when a woman proposes the same idea, she can expect others to simultaneously be looking for cues that she in fact possesses the types of skills and traits needed to make a venture a success—abilities she’s often assumed to lack because of her gender.”
― Emily Chang, Brotopya: Silikon Vadisi'nin Erkekler Kulübünü Dagitmak