Dive Brief:

• Since Susan Wojcicki has been at YouTube’s helm, the number of women at the video service ticked up to between 24% and 30%, writes Record. Women account for 31% of the company’s parent company, Google, which might show that YouTube is onboarding women at a faster pace, notes Record.
• In an op-ed piece in Vanity Fair, Wojcicki wrote that companies have more work to do in hiring women and that ridding the workplace of unfair treatment and harassment isn’t difficult. “Fortunately, there is a solution that has been proved to address gender discrimination in all its forms, both implicit and explicit: hiring more women,” Wojcicki said.
• Record says Wojcicki also touched on recent sexual discrimination allegations at Uber and Tesla, alongside diversity hiring challenges in the high-tech industry, in the op-ed. She also recommended ways for companies to better support women and other underrepresented workers.

Dive Insight:

Studies show that when women executives enter or move up through organizations, the number of women on staff also increases, since women often act as mentors and role models for other women. Multiple studies show that companies with women board members have a higher return on equity than those who don't, among other incentives.

Employers must not only hire more women and other underrepresented groups to eliminate discrimination, as Wojcicki recommends — they must also have and enforce no-tolerance anti-discrimination policies and strongly communicate those policies to everyone on staff.

Wojcicki wrote in her op-ed that solving unfair treatment and harassment “isn’t rocket science.” Neither is hiring women for high-tech or executive positions. According to an InHerSight study, women workers said paid time off (90%), salary satisfaction (89%), outstanding co-workers (89%), equal opportunities for men and women (85%) and flexible work hours (81%) were among their most desired benefits.