Circle celebrates International Women’s Day and two of our female executives talk about designing a workplace for everyone and building a more inclusive future.
UN Women, The United Nations entity focused on gender equality, cast a powerful thesis for International Women’s Day 2023: DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality – underscoring the potential of technology to unlock meaningful change, and the importance of Circle’s mission.
This month, Circle honors the central role of women, past, present and future, in driving digital innovation – while also challenging the definition of inclusion, and embracing the responsibility we all share in building a safer, more equitable world for rising generations.
Circle’s mission, and our commitment to leveraging Web3 to build a better future for women and marginalized communities everywhere, is reflected in our people and workplace, our products and partnerships, and in the values we uphold.
Getting more women into Web3
Providing easy access to technology for women around the globe is step one. The next step is building products and applications that deliver real-world utility, are easy to use and enable people everywhere to extract value. “Harnessing the power of blockchain and Web3 is a tremendous responsibility, and we’re just scratching the surface of its transformative potential,” says Li Fan, Circle’s Chief Technology Officer.
UN Women reports that just 22% of AI workers globally are women, and that over 44% of AI systems demonstrate gender bias. “To create products that work for everyone, we need the people building them to reflect the mindsets of a broad and diverse user base. The current representation of women in engineering roles is far from sufficient, and it has been a hard problem for the industry for many years,” says Li, who has grown Circle's technology organization 6X since joining Circle in April, 2021.
Designing a workplace that works for everyone
Web3 needs more women now to help unlock the next phase of utility value. And the workplaces of 2003 won’t get us there. Circle has been intentional about every aspect of the employee experience with a transparent, anti-bureaucratic approach to communication, values that leave no room for oppressive behavior, and a global employee-base that works mostly remote.
“The truth is, women around the world continue to carry a disproportionate amount of the caregiving responsibilities – whether it be for children, aging family members or others – and that comes at great cost to society,” says Elisabeth Carpenter, Circle’s Chief Operating Officer. “Offering remote flexibility and creating new pathways for women to return to the workforce following career breaks is a win-win. We’re able to tap into a rich and previously overlooked talent pool, while also tipping the equity scale.”
Circle promotes community, allyship and activism inside the company through employee-led Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), including a new and already thriving Women’s ERG. In addition, women across Circle are working at the grassroots community level and serving as advisors to a number of organizations that focus on providing women with access to essential services, and career opportunities in crypto and beyond.
Building a more inclusive future
The Web3 workforce of tomorrow begins with challenging hardwired perceptions and erasing gender-based stereotypes that potentially steer women and girls away from STEM opportunities, today.
Building a more inclusive pipeline of talent for Web3 requires us to not only recruit women into traditionally male roles such as engineering and leadership positions but also to adopt a new level of consciousness about the messages we’re sending young people – from equal opportunities on athletic fields, to better representation in history texts, to more positive reflections of women in media.
Learn more about Circle’s Mission to increase economic opportunity and prosperity around the globe, our work to drive financial inclusion through Circle Impact – and visit Circle Careers to learn more about a range of opportunities to work at Circle.
