In honor of Women’s History Month, our Women’s Professionals Circle is conducting an interview series highlighting perspectives of some of Matter’s female leaders on the issues and challenges women face in the workplace, in our culture and at home. After voting on which topics our group wanted the interviewees to shed light on, we’ll be focusing on “Barriers + Challenges,” “Parenting + Working,” and “Advice to Younger Women + Working in a Predominantly Female Industry.” First up – barriers and challenges women often face.

Question: Women often get interrupted, overlooked, outshined or their performance is unfairly scrutinized in some way. What has been your experience with this and how have you overcome these types of obstacles?

Question: There are often societal pressures women feel outside of the workplace. Can you speak to your experience with that, if any, and how you’ve overcome these types of pressures?

Vanessa: Women bear the brunt of responsibility for a great deal, especially when it comes to having kids. Right now, there seems to be great pressure on women to “do it all;” pressure for women to “hustle 24/7” — which is especially prevalent in PR and entrepreneurial spaces. I think women can have all they want, but I don’t think there has to be this constant grind … I’m fiercely protective of pockets of time I can spend sitting and doing nothing, especiallyas a working mom, and I think others should be too. Luckily, I’m fortunate enough to have the support to do that. Occasionally.

Danielle: I was Miss Corporate America – I was dedicated to my job, and I worked hard at it. I do believe woman can have it all, but it becomes increasingly challenging to establish the foundational stuff while you’re young and have that energy to be dedicated to where you are and who you are at work. There’s something to be said about how you position yourself at the office and what risks you’re willing to take in terms of what and how much you’re willing to share about being a woman, a mom and the responsibilities that you have in your personal life as well. In no way, shape or form can I lead a dual life just because people might feel uncomfortable that I need to be a mom as much as, if not more, than I need to be a business professional.

Stay tuned for our next blog post highlighting more of our many female leaders and their perspectives on parenting and working.

Yesterday marked the first day of Black History Month – an annual celebration of achievements by Black individuals and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. As my colleague Marissa Lindstrom stated in her email to our agency announcing the ways we are marking the occasion this year, it’s an opportunity to celebrate and learn about the contributions of African Americans — because Black history is American history.

In addition to her role as a Senior Strategist within our Integrated team, Marissa serves as one of the co-chairs of our Professionals of Color Circle and has been instrumental in planning the various programs we’re launching throughout the year. This includes a monthly series of spotlights on books, podcasts, events, movies, restaurants, art and other resources that are Black created or Black centric, which will accompany our “book club” style virtual meetups.

Additionally, to get everyone at Matter involved: we announced that we’ll be giving stipends to employees to support a Black-owned local business, artist or creator; collaborating with our Helping Hands committee to volunteer with local organizations that support communities of color in our neighborhoods; and kicking off a series of fun activities that honor Black culture, starting with an African Dance class taught by world-class instructor and local artist, Greg Coles.

Here, in Marissa’s own words, is a snapshot of why we’ve taken this approach:

Why do you think it’s important for companies to acknowledge Black History Month?

Marissa: In school, it’s common for education systems to teach students about Black history. But, as we become adults and enter the workforce, the celebration of African American history becomes less common. And unfortunately, there is a lot of research that talks about racism, discrimination and non-inclusive culture that Black employees face in the workplace. As a company, it’s up to us to set standards of how we address discrimination, and encourage inclusion and belonging for ALL employees. Recognizing and celebrating Black culture and sharing the experiences of Black individuals is a way for employees to understand the reality of racial bias and unfair treatment, especially when it’s coming from the perspective of people they know. 

When brainstorming ideas and collaborating on this year’s initiatives, what did you want to accomplish?

Marissa: I wanted our entire staff at Matter to not only listen and learn. By sharing Black business owners and content creators with them, I wanted them to FEEL and experience Black culture by creating initiatives they could actively participate in, like an African dance class and hands-on volunteer programs in the communities where Black people are most impacted. Companies that create a social post or two during Black History Month to “show” their support simply aren’t doing enough. We have to put action behind our intention. This month, we’re offering employees a stipend to support a Black-owned business or creator of their choice and that is doing something, rather than just talking about it.

For companies considering how to make their businesses and culture more inclusive of Black, multiracial and other people of color, what do they need to keep in mind?

Marissa: The people. People always need to come first. If you’re aiming to make your business and culture more inclusive, then you should think about creating resources and standards of diversity and inclusivity that directly benefit the people. There are a number of steps businesses can take now to improve racial diversity and inclusion in the workforce, but the three that stand out the most to me are:

1. Hiring and recruiting – adjust your screening/search process for candidates to make sure it’s inclusive, unbiased and helping you hire diverse individuals at ALL levels within the organization.
2. Support – Create resources for your current employees, like ERGs (employee resource groups), to foster mentorship and safe spaces.
3. Education – acknowledging the lack of diversity first and taking the time to notice differences is critical. Making diversity training available for everyone at the company, and making a conscious effort to ensure your language is inclusive, is so important. It should be clear to every employee that your company values and strives for racial diversity in the workplace.

What Marissa said about creating a workplace culture where we foster a true sense of belonging and backing up our words with actions, are two important drivers of our entire approach to diversity, equity and inclusion.

As Matter’s Leader of Diversity + Inclusion, what I love about these programs we’re rolling out is that they extend the impact of Black History Month to the rest of the year, providing everyone at Matter with the opportunity to continue learning and listening to Black voices, supporting Black artists, and participating in important conversations. It reaffirms our perspective that Black History Month is a special tribute, a time for acknowledgment, reflection and inspiration – and a celebration we plan to honor throughout the entire year.

I’ve said before in this very blog that we are the first to admit we have much more work to do, and we are tackling it every day we show up for each other and our clients. I’m excited that our collective passion is fueling continued progress on this front. Every day, we’re infusing this work into the fabric of our company — and it’s initiatives like these that will help us make a positive impact for our people, our agency and our community.

With so many racially divisive events and tragedies dominating the news cycle, taking over social media and transforming our conversations, it’s worth restating that diversity and inclusion is exceptionally important to us at Matter. As this summer marked two years since Matter’s D&I initiative and Diversity Committee kicked off, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we’ve accomplished and – more importantly – recognize that we still have work to do. 

In the continued execution of our D&I committee’s five-year strategic plan, we’ve made great strides toward our goals of recruiting a more diverse workforce, introducing more inclusive benefits for religious/cultural observances, expanding our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and ensuring we give real leadership opportunities to all employees equitably and responsibly – but we refuse to rest on our laurels. 

Back in February we talked about the importance of diversity and Black History Month, and the work our industry and our organization must do to close the gaps. Since then, like much of the world, we’ve taken a harder look at everything we’re doing to make progress and challenge ourselves to do more. In these first two years, we’ve seen a 250% increase in the number of employees disclosing they self-identify as something other than White/Caucasian. Continued representation and diverse voices are crucial in our ongoing commitment to ensuring a more inclusive workforce as Matter continues to grow. 

This summer, we kicked off a series of D&I training workshops to ensure we’re more mindful and deliberate about the language we use with each other, with our clients, in interviews and in marketing communications. And we made additional commitments to further expand upon our diversity efforts, including specific recruiting goals with built-in metrics, like a baseline objective of increasing our diverse workforce by at least 10% next year.  

As we’ve shared resources and anecdotes with colleagues and encouraged clients to implement programs like our own, we’ve also been inspired to make sure we’re not only holding ourselves to the existing goals we’ve established, but adding new ones along the way. 

This month, we joined MassTLC’s Tech Compact for Social Justice program. The Tech Compact was created as a way for the tech world to come together and create a more inclusive industry on a scale greater than any one company could enact. From startups to international conglomerates to rapidly growing disruptors, tech companies make up a huge part of our agency. That’s why we’re excited to be a partner in this program. As part of the pact, we’re focusing on three areas where we will take immediate action: 

• Introducing and/or expanding educational programs/opportunities for diversity, inclusion, racial inequality, unconscious bias, managing diverse teams and/or creating a judgement-free culture.
• Achieving greater racial diversity in hiring, leadership development and/or board composition.
• Attaining greater racial diversity in talent pipeline development programs, such as our internships.

It’s important to mention that although MassTLC is based in Massachusetts – where two of our offices are located – we’ve decided to make this an agency-wide commitment. It’s initiatives like this that make me proud to be a part of Matter, because it shows our leadership and our staff are taking on this cause the same way we do everything: going above and beyond, wherever and however we can.