Greetings, everyone. Happy to report that we are all well on our way to Spring, and the days are getting longer. The end of the proverbial tunnel is near. Welcome news indeed.
In blog-related news, I recently broke 25K views for this sillly blog, so shout out to my readers! While I do this mainly to maintain what little of my sanity I have left, it does make my heart feel warm and fuzzy to know that someone actually reads this! Keep it up and I will do the same.
Some of you might be aware that I work for a big software company. Annually we host a large event with approximately five thousand engineers, designers, entrepreneurs, students and makers. It's a super cool event and chock-filled with cool tech and gaga gadgetry.
While I'm not a nerd by profession, I will admit to being quite "nerded out" by some of the incredible inventions and super cool new products we showcase that are created by our 7+ million users. Hard to not be impressed by some of these incredible breakthroughs, many of which are poised to radically change the world we live in, for the better.
I'm accustomed to being wow'ed by cool tech. What I was absolutely not prepared for the emotion I experienced this year, which marked probably the 15th of these events I have attended over the last 20+ years. Not my first rodeo.
For the second year, I hosted a panel on increasing diversity in manufacturing and how that might help to build our workforce of the future. Diversity is something I've become more interested in as I am now responsible for the marketing of manufacturing solutions at my company. And, as I mentioned in my last blog, I've also become a radical liberal since moving to Chicago. 😉
One of the panelists, Aneesa Muthana, is a Muslim woman who happens to be the CEO of two manufacturing companies in the Chicago area. I've spent two years stalking Aneesa on LinkedIn, thinking she would be a great panelist for this discussion.
Perhaps working in a company that's largely made up of men and knowing that the manufacturing environment is perhaps even more lopsided in terms of the number of men versus women, I was thrilled when she finally accepted my offer to come to the event.
Currently just less than a third (29%) of manufacturing roles are held by women with less than 20% in leadership positions, and even fewer in the C Suite with just 12% of those titles being held by woman, all of which made Aneesa such an anomaly. I tried to find an actual stat on "Muslim women" in executive roles in manufacturing, and Google gave up the ghost.
Knowing her background, I assumed Aneesa would be a bona fide badass, take-no-prisons feminist. In my first conversation with Aneesa, I was fully locked and loaded to talk shit about the evils of the established patriarchy, and why as woman, we need to fight for equal representation, pay, etc. I wanted to trauma bond on the evils of the "crusty old men" who have historically dominated both the engineering and manufacturing worlds. I wanted to belt out a song from the Barbie movie.
Her response to this sentiment, however, surprised me. She told me that those white men, the ones often villainized, are the ones who taught her everything she knows about manufacturing, and will be the ones who will teach these skills to the next generation.
What? No trauma bonding? Nope, that is not the way Aneesa rolls. She is indeed a badass. But, she's no victim.
I wonder if she's even seen Barbie.
Aneesa delivered one of our keynote addresses during the event. There were a few execs at my company that were concerned; what would she say? Did anyone see her slides? The discomfort was palpable.
Not surprisingly, she killed it. She delivered a keynote address that was both inspiring and humble, and perhaps most importantly, inclusive of everyone, in particular white men, which made up the majority of her audience. For those interested in Aneesa's keynote, you can watch it below. She is beyond impressive.
After her speech, a lot of women, clearly inspired, wanted to connect with Aneesa. What was most shocking, however, was the number of men who approached me after to tell me how much her words meant to them. A total of five different men came up to me and told me they actually teared up during her talk and a few again while telling me, including a 6'5" burly, very intimidating security guy.
Their reaction to her words was very emotional, whereas the women reacted by wanting to connect, network and perhaps find a mentor. They were inspired to action. I honestly found it fascinating.
I guess white men have been picked on for a long time, sadly often for very good reasons, but there are still good men with good hearts, and as Aneesa says, if we want them to be part of building a new future in manufacturing, we need to include them.
Diversity is not about excluding any one group; it's about the magic that happens when diverse groups of people work together, bringing in their respective strengths, skill sets and life experiences.
Finding real-world heroes
Another keynote speaker was Lonnie Johnson, a Black scientist and entrepreneur, with stints in the U.S. Airforce and NASA 's JPL Lab. He's perhaps best known for inventing the Super Soaker, which generated over $200 million in sales. He used that money to fund his next venture; a better battery to support the storage of alternative energy to help us build a more sustainable future.
After his speech, I ran into one of our users, Eric Timmons, who I collaborated with on this blog on stolen patents last year for Black History month. He and his wife created "Black Engineer - History & Stolen Patents," a video series featuring 28 Black engineers and inventors denied their proper due. One of those he included was Lonnie Johnson! I asked if he might be interested in meeting him, and he was thrilled.
One of my other panelists, Drew Crowe, is a two-time felon and young father, who turned his life around after seeing his young son mimicking his "street" behavior. He started out sweeping at a local factory and worked his way up, now dedicated to outreach with his New American Manufacturing Renaissance.
Lonnie is also one of Drew's heroes so I was also super excited to introduce him to the legend in person. He wrote a beautiful post on LinkedIn about meeting Lonnie in person, his lack of real role models growing up, and how today's youth idolizes athletes and rappers.
"Lonnie's the kind of overlooked figure we gotta celebrate. Not just rappers and stars, but scientists enriching lives. Lonnie's inventions brought joy to millions. Now he pays in forward, getting youth into STEM. He represents the boundless potential in every child. That's a true hero. The type of person I aspire to be. Thank you, Mr. Johnson."
It was really touching to see both of these guys meet one of their heroes in person.
So yeah, a few more tears...at a work conference. Weird.
I think the bottom line is we are all stronger together. People with different backgrounds, regardless of their color or religion, all bring value to the table. It's what makes the U.S. amazing; the rich tapestry of people that makes up this country should be leveraged as a collective strength, not a reason for division.
I'm certainly a better person having met and interacted with all of these people this week. Heroes don't always wear capes; sometimes they wear head scarves and gold grills, and sometimes they are the crusty old white men paying it forward by teaching the next generation.
If anyone is interested in the panel I moderated at this event, you can watch it here.
Thanks for reading. Until next time.
Barb
Missed any blogs? You can catch up with the past blogs with links below:
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