🔥 Engine on Fire
Just because it's summer, doesn't mean we stop keep hustlin.
Want a sneak peak of ver. 2.0 of the Women’s Power Index?!
Join us at DataCon LA on August 12 where we talk about our work building version 2.0 of the Women’s Power and Influence Index with some of the most prominent data scientists in California.
In WPI 2.0 we rank 20 additional companies and add several dozen measurement criteria to the Index paradigm, making the WPI one of the most comprehensive measures of equity and fairness at the workplace.
I’m very proud of all our students, particularly Elisa Thomas, who started with us as a Barrett’s Honor College student and has continued working with us as a paid employee and through her graduate school education. Excited that she will be joining me on stage to talk about our team’s work!
🤓 What We’ve Been Up To
Our students sat down to chat with PayPal leadership recently and share how they have done on the Women’s Power and Influence Index.
PayPal is a Trailblazer on the Index - currently the highest ranking an organization can receive. Here’s what they are doing right:
💵 Their commitment to eliminating the pay gap between men and women shows - women at PayPal start at the same exact median base pay as men.
👩🏽💼 Based on our analysis of government data - 34% of PayPal’s executives are women, as is nearly half (42%) of the workforce. There’s room for improvement, but this is no easy feat in the technology sector.
🤝 PayPal’s programmatic commitment to women at the workplace is also robust, from their Women’s Resource Groups, to the Recharge program where women who have been out of the workforce can regain tech sector skills, to their commitment to Black Girl Ventures - a mentorship program for Black entrepreneurs.
There is room for improvement. An easy way to improve would be making certain workplace policies easily visible and accessible.
Nonetheless, I am really proud of the work our team has done in this space and gratified to see PayPal and other companies of conscience take gender equality at the workplace seriously.
We’re Hiring!
We're halfway through the year and we've already accomplished so much at The Difference Engine, from launching our Annual Solutions for Inequality event in March, to seeing the UnfairNation Podcast hit top 10% globally.
We've got a lot more in store - join us on this journey!
We're looking for a detail-oriented dynamic program coordinator to join our team in Phoenix at the terrific Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Please share widely!
UnfairNation Hits Top 10%!
The UnfairNation podcast is now of one of the most popular podcasts in the world - with over 50,000 listeners per week. Check out our latest episode below with William Gude from Film the Police LA.
Add us to your favorite podcast app for future episodes, coming this summer!
Welcome New Difference Engineers!
ASU law students Graham Bosch and Jordan Ulloa join Molly Launceford as part of our New Policing Project research team. The New Policing Project is a collaborative effort with the Academy for Justice, to build a brand new police/public safety department from scratch.
Congrats also to those of our Difference Engineers who graduated this summer!
🤝 News From Friends
In July, we became the first law school to allow the use of artificial intelligence in applications!
As Dean Stacy Leeds notes: policies that encourage the use of generative AI in learning actually break down barriers that exist for prospective students by allowing them to access assistance (such as admissions coaches) that privileged individuals have been leveraging for decades.
I'm really excited about this announcement and look forward to seeing how it magnifies accessibility for applicants, law students and recent graduates.
💫 What’s Next
We’re growing! See above for an open position. Join us!
We’ll be announcing some exciting new partnerships and projects this fall.
Keep your eyes peeled for our new Women’s Power and Influence Index website.
💝 Become a Difference Engineer
Everyone can become involved in our work: you can support us financially - allowing us to hire more students and staff, apply to become a fellow (coming soon) or get involved in one of our ongoing projects.
Thanks for reading and for making a difference.
-Ehsan