Woman& Series 2023 Reflection

In 2023, we created the Woman& Series to celebrate the myriad of intersectional identities of the women at Pinterest. Gracious Nyamupachitu, Women@’s Program Lead, is reflecting on how the Woman& Series came to life in practice, showing appreciation for the individuals who were spotlighted in partnership with fellow Pinclusion Groups and sharing an update on the future of this series. 

How did the Woman& Series start?

The Woman& Series came out of our inaugural Pinclusion Group Leadership Summit in February 2023, where employee resource group (ERG) leads and our executive sponsors spent time strategizing for the year ahead. The series was inspired by the simple truth that women are not a monolith. Age, race, culture, ability status and so much more impact our unique experiences of navigating the world as women. The series was created to highlight those other significant aspects of our identities, offering all employees the opportunity to learn more about and value our nuanced diversity. A key part of the program was partnering with all of the other Pinclusion Groups during Heritage Moments, and coming together to emphasize the importance of applying an intersectional lens to inclusion and diversity programming not just for women, but for everyone. 

How did the program come to life in practice?

The program came to life across three tracks: external social spotlights, internal profile features and events in partnership with other Pinclusion Groups.

The social spotlight series celebrated different women each month on our Life at Pinterest Instagram, and we took a deeper dive with Asian, Black and Indigenous women through Life at Pinterest Blog posts. Internally, people learned more about women on their teams with monthly profile features that included a fun “two truths and a lie” segment, which effortlessly sparked discussions and connection.

Additionally, in honor of several heritage moments, we partnered with different Pinclusion Groups to host internal global events which were led by or centered intersectional women. We were joined by Mita Mallick, Author of Re:Imagine Inclusion, for a fireside chat during Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month. For Pride Month, we brought folks together for a screening and discussion of The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone. Latiné Heritage Month found us cooking and chisme-ing in the kitchen with Pinterest Creator, Maria Sierra. And we had the pleasure of learning from disability rights activist, Keely Cat-Wells, on Access & Equity during National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

What was Woman&’s impact?

Create Belonging is one of our core values at Pinterest. As belonging starts with representation, it’s essential for employees of all identities to see themselves authentically represented and celebrated within the company and in our product. Our Woman& features this year represented women from over 10 intersectional identities, and from all of Pinterest’s business functions, which drove this core company value forward.

Advocacy and allyship were our other key goals of the program. We sought to center the experiences and stories with the goal to improve inclusion by empowering everyone to be better advocates for one another and have greater empathy and appreciation of intersectionality. Women and allies alike engaged with featured employees in some of the most heartwarming and funny internal messaging threads, and people from various identities joined our Woman& events throughout the year. 

Finally, we enjoyed sharing this program externally too with those interested in open roles at Pinterest and the world at large. The reception was encouraging and a testament to the importance of our thoughtful inclusion efforts and what makes Pinterest a great place to work. 

As the Lead of this program, what did it mean to you? 

I’m one of those people who’s passionate about the servant leadership philosophy. When I define what that means in my own words, it means that I value opportunities to represent, advocate for and inspire people on the teams or communities to which I belong. Leading the Woman& Series has been one of those rare experiences that allowed me to lean into all three of those things at once. We uniquely represented the layered identities that are not typically highlighted as the face of women’s communities in society. For advocacy, the content of the series made sure that Women@ members could feel that they have been learned about, celebrated and their perspectives considered in the culture that we’re building at Pinterest. As for being inspiring, the series was full of fun, tactical ideas and events that both internal and external people were excited to engage in. So for me personally, I am so humbled and fulfilled to have worked on this series and to see its impact especially from the feedback provided by those spotlighted. Most importantly, it’s another moment where I feel really proud to work for Pinterest where the support for and championing of this program by Pinclusion Group leads, executive sponsors, the Inclusion and Diversity team and fellow employees showed our company's commitment to continuously differentiating how we move the needle on DEI and belonging.

What’s next?

Leveraging the Woman& Series as a pilot, we have since set up a Pintersectionality committee with representation from both our Pinclusion Groups and our Pinspiration Groups (employee interest groups). Through this committee, and with the support of the Inclusion & Diversity team, our employee resource group leaders have found a space to keep the intersectional focus top of mind and to continuously identify the heritage moments and activations where we can continue to celebrate our diversity across identity groups. We’re excited for all the partnerships we have in the works - more to come in the new year!