As part of our exciting Diversity & Inclusion initiatives, Uplight went all out on celebrating Womxn’s Equality Day this year. August 26th, 2020 was the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, and we wanted to use the day as an opportunity to celebrate and recognize all our amazing womxn-identifying Uplighters. Members of Womxn of Uplight joined forces with members of the Enlighten Pulse Task Force to put on talks and programming throughout the day and week.
We kicked off the day with morning coffee talks for womxn to discuss the challenges we face, experiences we’ve learned from, and triumphs we celebrate. This was an amazing safe space for womxn from all parts of the company to meet one another and share their stories. Many of the womxn organized future meet-ups with members of their Zoom breakout sessions to keep their discussions going.
Throughout the day, we shared womxn-centric posts on the #inclusion Slack channel. These included topics such as the history of womxn in coding, womxn’s resources and progress within Uplight, and charitable organizations supporting womxn’s issues. We also launched the Brag Boards, where all Uplighters were able to acknowledge, praise, and support each womxn at the company. The Brag Boards were so instantly popular, in fact, that we briefly “crashed” the Google Sheet they were held on! Uplighters were just that excited to express positivity towards one another. To make that positive even more tangible, the kind words on each womxn’s Brag Board will be sent to her in a postcard a few weeks after the event.
Womxn’s Equality Day ended on a note of OneTeam unity with a special exec connect from Adrian and Angela. Everyone was encouraged to attend and celebrate their womxn coworkers. The womxn of Uplight shared many powerful personal stories and victories. Uplight’s Executive Connect had moments of deep vulnerability, reflection, and joy. As the discussion came to a close, we listened to audio clips of womxn from the Pune office sharing their stories, which they’d recorded for us earlier in the day. It was truly a welcoming, inclusive space for all womxn of Uplight to be seen and heard.
