Kendall Tucker is the CEO and founder of Polis, a door-to-door canvassing app startup. Polis was a silver winner at this year’s MassChallenge Boston program, and it also graduated from Techstars Boston in the spring, before moving to DC.
It’s been about a week since Donald Trump became the president-elect of the United States. Shocked and in disbelief, we as a tech community have fallen into deep self-reflection wondering how our country’s social attitudes could be so distant from where we thought them to be.
Our industry is insistent on the “otherness” of Trump supporters. We call them xenophobes, racists and even say that they’re out to get us. I empathize with some of these feelings, but what we still haven’t acknowledged is that this prejudice leads from within.
“What we still haven’t acknowledged is that this prejudice leads from within.”
The tech community today bears a striking resemblance to Wall Street of the 1980s. It’s big, it’s powerful and it plays an outsized role in our political process. It is also dominated by men. Women make up 26 percent of the tech industry and only 16 percent of companies have female founders. The country is looking to us as leaders and on this key issue of social equality, we’re failing.
The tech world is filled with barriers to the success of women. Our problem is not only easy-to-object-to overt harassment in the stylings of our president-elect (although we certainly have that), but it’s also the day-to-day slights and internalized sexism that makes women hesitate to show up to work or show signs of upward motivation.
Last week at the MassChallenge Awards Gala here in Boston, a woman came up to my startup’s booth, gestured to me and told my male colleagues, “good thing you brought arm candy to the event!” I am the founder and CEO of my company.
A few weeks before that an investor told me that my voice is too high and I blink too much.
I get compared to someone’s girlfriend, wife or mother almost every single day.
The problem goes beyond social settings and can seriously impact one’s ability to lead a business. Investors often set a higher bar for women than they might for men. They look for founders who fit their perception of what a founder should look like. Businesspeople often do many of their meetings over drinks or on the golf course where they don’t think to invite their female colleagues. And unfortunately, when there is someone like the president-elect who harasses women, other men continue working with him despite the fact that women do not feel safe doing so.
A few months ago, a consultant told me he’d help my company in exchange for sex. A couple months after that, I found out that other men in my life who know about these incidents still patronize his business.
Our industry needs to recognize that problems with America are reflected in our conference rooms.
What I’d like to see is a tech community that leads not just in outrage but also in action. I deserve to be treated like your equal. I don’t dress up for events to find a spouse or to flirt. Even if you’re being kind, I don’t care for your opinion on my looks.
I am your colleague, your friend and your business partner. I drink beer not to be “one of the guys” but because I like it. I work hard not to prove anything to anyone but because my company is changing the world.
Let’s move forward as a community that rewards difference, hard work and merit. Stop looking for founders who fit the Zuckerberg/Gates role. My favorite entrepreneur breastfeeds on business calls and says “fuck” 20 times a minute. She’ll knock your socks off and her company will make you rich.
Being outraged about Trump means being an ally even when it’s hard. Our industry needs to recognize that problems with America are reflected in our conference rooms. It’s time for us to take real steps to make this world and this community a safer and better place, starting from within.
This week’s been hard, but next week can be better.
