Page 40 of The Thorne at My Side
"I had a lot on my mind."
"Or your head?"
"Okay, this is not what I came in here to talk about."
"Let’s move on to why you were up and out of the apartment before I got home from class this morning. Is that what youcamein here to talk about?"
"Why does everything sound sexual with you?"
"Answer the question."
“I was motivated to get up this morning.”
“Getitup! Whooha!” Elle bellows and holds up her hand for a high-five. I leave her hanging. “Oh c’mon! That was funny.”
"Moving on, I know you don’t work therebut I figured you might know anyway. How many women are in management at Thorne?"
"Not many, why?"
"I'm reading stuff on women-run companies who outperform male-run peers."
"There's evidence?"
"Yeah, a few different articles."
"Any posted by Thorne?"
I stop to think about it. I used the AI Media search tool to start my research. It is designed to pull Thorne articles first but there weren't many.
"A few, not many. I'd have to check the sources of the others."
"That doesn't surprise me. I feel like a lot of our articles take a traditional white male point of view."
"They do?"
She laughs, "yeah, of course you haven't seen it." She tsks like I should know better.
"Hey, that's not fair," I start but she might be right.
"How many women helped you write the code for AIM?"
"I'm not sure. Why?"
"Because if you're writing for women there's a different tone, different words you can use to be more effective. It might be worth looking into so that you make the most of your fancy new technology."
"Hm," I say and then I lift myself off the stool and head back to my room. I email Elizabeth with questions and ask her to set up a call with Tyler so I can ask him the questions Elle asked me. She responds within a few minutes reporting that we only had a few women on the project and they didn't work on the whole code, just sections of it. She attached the HR assignments for the project as evidence.
My sleep wasn’t restful. I tossed and turned and each time I slipped into consciousness my mind would turn to fixing this. The next day dawns and I feel a storm cloud settle in around my shoulders. It brewed as I got ready for work. As Greg drove me across town to the office. As I said a quiet good morning to Elizabeth who eyed me sideways for my lack of usual enthusiasm.
The day has been full of meetings and brainstorming solutions to our inclusion problem and the looming lawsuit. Not helping me focus is the fact that Maggie is in my mind anytime I'm not actively working. And she might be there when I am actively working because I find myself asking very Maggie-like questions.
Her voice is in my head as she asks me, “Are there biases in your recruitment process that might deter female candidates?”
And, “What strategies can be implemented to foster allyship and support from male colleagues once women have been hired?”
Or, “When are you going to make a woman the leader of the project?”
I slide my glasses off and flip them to my desk. Overcoming decades of gender bias is not for the faint of heart. As I lean back and press the heels of my hands into my eye sockets, Elizabeth knocks lightly at my door.
