IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2018 - 15

provided value to more than 50 U.S. companies they work with, as evidenced by
some of Fairygodboss's partners, which
include Apple, Salesforce, IBM, and General Motors. "We speak to a need for any
company that is looking to attract and retain women," says Huang. "We just know
a ton about what women say and think
and want, and that allows us to help employers do the right thing when it comes
to recruiting and retaining women."

Added Value
There is also value supplied to the site's user
base beyond the reviews and job listings. "I
think it's really important that women see
role models," Huang continues. "So part
of what we do when we help companies is
to highlight the stories that really matter
and allow women to see that they can have
a home at that company." Newman echoes
the sentiment, sharing that the team has
received letters from women who describe
how the content from Fairygodboss helps
them feel less isolated about their workplace issues. The company is grateful as
well for the support and advocacy of female
business leaders, such as Ellen Shook, Beth
Comstock, and Sallie Krawcheck.
Their status as a relatively new company might also be why they have a huge percentage of women in their user base who
are in science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics (STEM) fields. "I think
women in tech can be first adopters and
are, of course, comfortable doing things
on digital platforms," muses Huang. "But
also, they're isolated and they're coming to
our site looking for community."
The founders have seen a real spectrum
when it comes to the STEM space. "There
are good guys and bad guys," shares Newman. "We find that there's a real 'bro'
culture in the startup world, and women
are struggling there a lot, while more established companies have a much more
developed sensibility for helping working
women and mothers become managers
and leaders. There's more investment and
structure around programs in those companies to help women be successful."

At the same time, Huang notes that
the smaller companies are seeing that
they have to provide a better experience to
recruit and retain female tech and engineering professionals, so they are learning. "We just really advocate that people
do their research," she says. "There are
resources out there, and it's why we exist.
We're a free place for women to try and
understand what they're getting into."
The future for Fairygodboss looks
bright. "We have really big ambitions
both socially and as a business," says
Huang. "There's no reason that every
woman can't or shouldn't use us, whether they are looking for career advice or
just want to read profiles of other women. Even if you aren't actively looking for
a job, you should always have a sense of
what's going on in the women's job market, and we have great crowdsourced and
expert-generated career advice for women just looking for a better work-life balance or to navigate their jobs and careers
more successfully." With a target user
base of all women worldwide, Fairygodboss could become a household name,
certainly on par with the other major
job-listing companies and networks that
currently exist.
For women not looking at other companies but considering starting their
own, Huang and Newman advise that
they do their research, and then go for
it. Huang (who holds a B.A. degree in
economics from Cornell University and a
J.D. degree from Stanford Law School)
previously started a few companies before conceptualizing Fairygodboss, but
she sees sees the importance of managing
the risk. "It is so much easier to start a
digital business these days," she says.
"The speed with which you can
test your idea online before taking it to market makes people really fortunate."
Huang also recognized
the business wouldn't
work if she were a solo
founder and sought out
a partner who had a dif-

ferent background and skill set to create Fairygodboss.
Newman (who earned a B.A. degree
in American studies from Yale University
and an M.B.A. degree from the Kellogg
School of Management at Northwestern University) counsels women to be
bold and unafraid to fail. "One thing I've
learned on this adventure is that it takes
about all of the courage you can muster,
but it's important to be fearless," she says.
"Even if you do or say the wrong thing-
and we all do-you can recover."
"Since I had a more traditional corporate career track than Georgene, for me,
it is really exciting to have so much room
to experiment through trial and error
with our own venture," she explains. "I've
learned so much from Georgene; for example, when we were starting the site, we
needed to write content and I said, 'I can't
do that, I didn't go to journalism school'
and she said 'Yes, you can do it!'"
This goes to show, she continues, that
"We often get pigeonholed into the one
or two things we're good at, especially as
women and especially in the corporate
structure. It's exhilarating to learn and
do other things outside of those categorizations." Both women have found the
process of building Fairygodboss to be
empowering and are now continuing on
the journey to share that empowerment
with others, all in service of their mission
to improve the workplace and the lives of
women worldwide.
-Leslie Prives is a freelance writer
living in New York City.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2018