International Women's Day: How Mailgun's female leaders break the bias

On International Women’s Day, I want to focus on two terms or buzzwords that are often used in the workplace by women in leadership positions: ‘lean in’ and ‘work-life balance’. They are both shiny terms that female leaders continue to throw around, but in reality, those are just traps that set you up for failure. It’s not always enough or easy to ‘lean in’. The same goes for ‘work-life balance.’ Both imply that if a woman works hard enough and asserts herself enough, she can thrive at home and at work. Both of these phrases inaccurately imply that succeeding is solely the responsibility of individual women and ignores the confines and barriers that societal structures can place around them.

Paid parental leave policies and flexibility with childcare or school schedules are critical for working mothers. There is this perception that women either have to choose a career or children. It doesn’t have to be that way, but finding a balance between work and children has been especially hard during the pandemic. When you are working, it is easy to feel like a terrible mother. When you’re with your children, it’s easy to feel like a horrible worker. Acknowledging that people are feeling this way and treating them as human is the best thing Mailjet and Mailgun have done throughout the pandemic, and I hope many others will follow suit.

On International Women’s Day, we as a society must challenge the notion that the tech industry and other STEM fields are a ‘man’s world.’ Young women who are still in school and determining what the path ahead looks like must be reminded that they are more than capable of becoming excellent engineers, developers, and data scientists. To make this happen, universities and tech companies must open up education and job opportunities for women to pave the way for a career in tech.

Women should feel more empowered to break glass ceilings and challenge themselves to push past stereotypes. With gender disparities in the tech industry being more of an open conversation now than in the past, it is now up to companies to foster an environment where women are welcome and supported. By making a concerted effort to combat unconscious biases that women should pursue other careers and opening up opportunities for girls and young women, we could be having a very different conversation in International Women’s Days to come.

An ideal leadership team is more of a diversity of thought than anything else. For myself and the rest of the team, we want to challenge each other to allow for healthy debate and a positive context to expand our boundaries to get the best outcome for our company. And we want these challenges to expand beyond our walls to reach the rest of the tech world as well. This variety of opinions and ideas is extremely important, as uncovering and empowering them make us better leaders and an overall better organization from the top down.

As I reflect on my own career path, I realized that I’ve never had a female boss, and all of my formal mentors have been male. However, in my current role, the teams that report to me are all male, flipping that dynamic on its head. To me, this helps show the reality that just as women benefit from male mentors and allies, men also benefit greatly from the mentorship, leadership, and sponsorship of women. If we all work together to encourage inclusivity and acceptance in the technology space and beyond, more and more people will feel welcome, and companies will be able to find the best talent.

Mentorship is critical in encouraging growth and confidence in one’s job, and I’ve made a concerted effort to guide and advise newcomers throughout my career -- of all genders and backgrounds. These types of mentorships are something I highly recommend women early in their career to have, in addition to a ‘sponsor’.

Most think ‘mentors’ and ‘sponsors’ are interchangeable when the reality is that they are somehow different. A mentor can be anyone inside or outside of your company that you look to for advice. They guide you on how to resolve conflict and challenges at the workplace. A sponsor is someone that is inside the organization that goes out of their way to pave the way for you.

In my 25 years of experience, I still have both mentors and sponsors to this day, and I would never make any major career decisions without them. I aspire to be there for others in the same way they’ve been there for me, and I hope after reading this, you may do the same for promising new talent.

Women have the power to choose differently and courageously, despite facing many challenges professionally and at home. It can be easy to forget that we are in control of what comes next, but this year’s theme is a strong reminder to make intentional choices for who we want to be and what we are capable of.

The biggest challenge I have faced in choosing to take on a leadership role was more of an internal struggle. I thought I was not good enough, and I lacked confidence. My advice to other women is to know your domain and understand the product you are working on inside and out. Choose to challenge misperceptions of your expertise and your technical ability, and don’t be intimidated. By letting go of perfectionism, I advanced from leading a team of two to a team of 20. At Mailjet and Mailgun, our leadership team is currently more than 40% female, and I think having that female representation is the most surefire way for a company to create an inclusive environment. It brings female voices to the table and advocates for programs and policies that support women.