Celebrating women at Box and around the world

August 26th 2021 | Lucy Tran, Recruiting Programs Manager

Box is known for connecting people worldwide through our product, and that's how we power our culture, too. No matter who you are, where you're from, or what brings you to Box, we welcome the authentic you here. Community at Box means anyone and everyone can have the ability to experience a sense of belonging as part of a community that allows you to celebrate your whole self. Today, we celebrate the stories of women at Box in honor of Women's Equality Day.

What is Women's Equality Day?

The day is observed in the US to commemorate American women getting the constitutional right to vote, but it's also become much more than that. Equality for women has become a global movement towards human rights, fair pay, access to resources, and so much more.

Why do we celebrate Women's Equality Day?

Women make up 49.6% of the world's population and 37% of our Boxer population. We believe that women's rights are fundamental and better the world for all, not just for women. When women are paid fairly in the workplace, have access to health care, have equal opportunity to thrive and more, they can contribute to communities, economies and society.

How do we celebrate and ensure equality at Box?

"At Box, we are committed to creating a culture of fairness and inclusion, and an environment where we can thrive and "make mom proud". We continue to strive for equality through our actions, our language and our policies. So what does this look like? We demonstrate this in a variety of ways at Box. We developed a career framework with learning paths, assessed our job descriptions removing any unconscious bias in our language and criteria, and we post open positions making opportunities available to all employees. We created a mentoring program, providing coaching, advice and a sounding board to help Boxers navigate their career, develop their skills and follow their dreams. We introduced flexible work arrangements to provide Boxers with the space they needed to juggle work and life. We work hard to promote pay equity, constantly benchmarking ourselves with peers and the broader industry. Ultimately we want to create an inclusive and conducive work environment where our employees feel secure, happy and able to do their life's best work." - Stephanie Carullo, Chief Operating Officer

We hold ourselves accountable, which is why we signed the California Equal Pay Pledge. As part of our continued commitment, we conduct an annual companywide gender pay analysis on hiring and promotion procedures to reduce unconscious bias and structural barriers to equitable compensation. In addition, we externally benchmark the compensation we provide for each role to ensure pay parity, and provide regular pay equity updates to our Compensation Committee. Our analyses indicate that we have pay equity across gender globally for employees in similar jobs, accounting for factors such as role, level and location.

We also ensure that Boxers can Bring their (_____) Self to Work by creating safe spaces for engagement and providing opportunities for networking and development, while promoting a culture of learning and allyship to ensure that the needs of underrepresented employees are lifted. We have received external recognition for these efforts, including being named to the 2021 Bloomberg GenderEquality Index, and receiving a top score of 100 on the 2021 Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is also evident within our Board of Directors, which is composed of 40% women and 20% directors from underrepresented communities. In addition, our Corporate Governance Guidelines were amended in 2021 to memorialize the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee’s commitment to actively seeking highly qualified women and individuals from underrepresented communities to include in the initial pool from which director candidates are selected.

Box also celebrates International Women's Day and Women's History Month in March, giving the first Monday off in March as a company-wide holiday in honor of the day. In 2020's Women's History Month theme, "Celebrating Her-Story" we cultivated stories of our own Boxers. We have no shortage of women with incredible stories, women who inspire in their work as Boxers and in their many other identities: as leaders, moms, humanitarians, athletes, veterans, immigrants, friends, artists and more. During that month, we were focusing on capturing and sharing the unique stories of women at Box with the goal of acknowledging and celebrating our extraordinary community.

What you should know about the Boxer-led ERCs (Employee Resource Communities) focused on women:

So who are we? The Box Women's Network (BWN) was founded in 2012 through a grassroots, Boxer-led effort to create community for women at Box. Today, BWN remains a volunteer, Boxer-led organization, with chapters in six of our offices – Redwood City, San Francisco, Austin, New York, London and Tokyo –and hundreds of members globally. Our mission is to empower, connect, educate, inspire and advocate for women and allies at Box. Within the overarching mission, we are especially focused on programming that drives intersectionality, allyship and empowerment for Boxers and the broader community of women, girls and allies beyond Box. As a partner to BWN, Box Women in Tech (WIT) was also a community formed specifically for women in engineering, product, or technical positions to amplify women voices in Tech.

Check out this video and hear from Alex Reynolds, Sr. Program Manager at Box and a member our BWN network, share about her involvement empowering women at Box.

So how can you influence those around you on Women's Equality Day and beyond?

1. Mentorship

Mentorship is key to career development, especially with underrepresented groups. Here at Box, we developed an internal Employee Resource Community (ERC) Mentorship Program that focuses on leadership and skills development of our ERC members. The 6-month program includes 1:1 mentorship of members of the Black Excellence Network (BEN), Box Women's Network (BWN), Latinx, Women in Technology (WIT), and Mosaic Employee Resource Communities (ERCs) globally.

Before piloting, when we asked Boxers what they wanted from mentorship, we heard from ERC members in these groups that mentorship is important for:

Getting guidance on how to step into the next level in career
Exposure and perspective from Boxers who aren't in their immediate sphere of work, like their manager or cross-functional leader
Having a sounding board to navigate some of the daily challenges and nuances of the work environment
Demonstrating multiple ways to show up as a leader at Box

When we have mentors for women, we create an environment of building and growing that ultimately drives a pipeline of amazing leaders. It's a critical part for not only the mentee, but the mentor and company as a whole.

2. Support charities and organizations led by women

We have showcased many internal, company-wide impact spotlights highlighting customers with social impact missions that advance the needs of women, such as Kreyol Essence and Women's World Banking.

Black Girls Code is also a long-time partner of Box and we were able to collectively raise over $30k for Black Girls Code through the "Call to Hacktion" portion of our Hackathon in 2020. We also included them as one of the key organizations during our annual summer fundraising "Box.org July of Giving" in 2020, where 5 organizations focused on social justice and addressing the effects of current crises. We invited the CEO and Founder of Black Girls Code, Kimberly Bryant, to join us for a Fireside Chat with Aaron during our All-Hands Friday Lunch, in which she provided greater insight into the mission, impact, and current initiatives at Black Girls Code.

3. Consider women in tech

So how can we encourage allyship for women in tech? As a technology company, we know we can be a part of the solution.

Stay inclusive - Whether it be interviewing processes, job descriptions, community roles, or leadership opportunities, it's important to be inclusive and consider women and their perspectives. Build and enable a system that promotes inclusivity everywhere, at all times.
Elevate voices of women in all spaces - in meetings, in 1:1 conversations, amongst team members, etc. Relationship building and collaboration happen positively when stories are shared and ideas are heard. Get excited to encourage and guide women and cultivate an environment where one can truly bring their whole self.

So go out and celebrate, thank, commemorate, congratulate, and uplift women in your network today.