Women in Tech: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women with Oracle's Lisa Joy Rosner

This episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast – Interview Series is part of our recently launched Women in Tech Series. I'm thrilled to have as my guest today Lisa Joy Rosner, Senior Vice President of Brand and Digital for Oracle. She leads the team that is responsible for all things around the verbal and visual identity of the company. But more than that, and like me, Lisa Joy is living the life of a busy executive while also managing to raise four kids in the process.  

Our conversation was intended to tackle a tech-related topic, but once we realized we had so much in common, we decided to quickly pivot and discuss something even more important — women in tech and the impact of COVID-19.

The stark reality of the impact of a global pandemic on women is not pretty. Women have been three times more likely to have their careers impacted in some way by the pandemic compared to men. According to the National Women's Law Center nearly 2.2 million women left the workforce in 2020. And, despite the positive job market gains in the last few months, women are re-entering the workforce at a slower pace, if at all. Many continue to stay home, because the strain of being an educator, caretaker, and employee has been too much.

Women in Tech and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Lisa Joy and I have both lived lives that have been largely comprised of balancing work and family. We've also both witnessed firsthand the impact that the last year has had on our female colleagues, so we thought it was time to have a discussion about what leaders in tech — and other industries too — can do to help ease the strain of the pandemic for everyone, but especially for women.

Our conversation covered:

• The importance of empathy for ourselves, colleagues, customers, and partners.
• How understanding and flexibility from leaders can go a long way.
• The little gestures that make a big difference for employees.
• The mental and emotional toll the pandemic is having on employees and how we as leaders need to do a better job.

It was a fascinating conversation and an incredibly important one to be had right now. No matter where you are in the workforce hierarchy, this is definitely be one episode you don't want to miss.