The Pinterest Women’s Conference 2021 Building Better

By: Christine Deputy, Chief People Officer at Pinterest

Amid a life-altering 20 pandemic months, women, like so many historically disenfranchised groups across the world, are shouldering disproportionate fallout from COVID-19. 1 in 4 women are downshifting their careers or exiting the workforce altogether and these impacts are even more pronounced for Black women, working mothers and women in senior positions.

Women are asking: How might we all rise together from the chaos of the past year and redefine success in our relationship to work, our communities, and ourselves on our own terms? How might we Build Better?

We are ready for change.

On Wednesday, December 1st, Pinterest is holding our fourth annual Women’s Conference. We’re hosting influential voices, educators and Creators to inspire exploration of these questions for our employees and select external stakeholders. All with the intention of leaving women and aspiring allies alike feeling inspired, and ready to Build Better.  This year’s keynote speaker is the world’s most decorated gymnast, Simone Biles, in conversation with Pinterest’s Global Communications Officer, LeMia Jenkins.

The Pinterest Women’s Conference started in 2018 as an employee-driven and employee-facing event to celebrate the women of Pinterest. Over the last four years, the event has grown from a local effort at our San Francisco headquarters to encompass all 3,000+ employees and external partners, job candidates, and advisors.This year’s event takes place on December 1st from 9am to 6pm, airing in four global time zones. The conference is a one-day, immersive virtual event where employees have the full support of every level of leadership to cancel meetings and make space to Build Better.

This year, I’ll be co-executive sponsoring the conference with two colleagues and Pinterest leaders: Chief Marketing Officer Andréa Mallard, and Global Communications Officer, LeMia Jenkins. I was honored when the enthusiastic planning team approached Andréa, LeMia, and myself to act as their co-executive sponsors to ensure the event had the funding and visibility it needed to be effective. The conference delivers a diverse line-up of guests and centers the experiences of women who are people of color, LGBTQ+, and disabled.

Executive leaders in every region are joining live employee discussions to engage in thoughtful conversation about the work Pinterest can do to build better for women in our company and beyond. The conference anchors on five pillars for Building Better, aimed to educate and inspire, with takeaways that can be implemented within and outside of work:

• Choose Wellbeing: Physical, emotional and spiritual self-care
• Actionable Allyship: Defining what support truly looks like
• Personal Growth: Skills to better our careers and lives
• Self-defined Success: Nurturing the entrepreneur in all of us
• Elevating Perspectives: On intersectionality and high-impact issues

Aligned to our company’s goal and product’s mission, the conference will include several opportunities to convert inspiration to action. As a company, we’re investing $100,000 into 10 small, women-owned businesses and sponsoring their participation in the Pinterest Elevates program, which offers tailored training and ads credit to help uplift business owners who are people of color, people with disabilities and LGBTQ+. We’re also highlighting our partnership with #HalfTheStory, an organization dedicated to empowering the next generation’s relationship with technology to whom we recently made a $150,000 grant. Their founder and Executive Director, Larissa “Larz” May, will be speaking in a fireside conversation with our CMO Andréa Mallard about her work and how all of us can develop a healthier relationship to social media. Internally, employees will have the opportunity to donate to several amazing women-focused non-profit organizations (She’s the First, Women for Women International, Girls who Code, Women’s Brain Health Initiative, Care), and Pinterest will be matching donations 2:1. Attendees will also be able to shop 25 women-owned businesses in a virtual expo hall throughout the event. We’re thrilled to provide employees with the opportunity to shop small and drive impact this holiday season.

Pinterest has a culture rooted in our values to Act with Integrity, Care with Candor, and Put Pinners First. We continue to iterate and improve as we listen and learn to our employees and Pinners, and navigate our new working norms. I’ve been here as Chief People Officer for about six months, and am working with leaders and teams across the business to facilitate a workplace experience that matches the Pinner (user) experience, where the company itself is a place employees can bring their whole selves, and leave feeling inspired.

At the Women’s Conference and beyond, we’ll attempt to answer the question we opened with: how might we all rise together from the chaos of the past year and redefine success on our own terms to build better? Here at Pinterest, in our unique position as the inspiration platform and as an employer, we’ll continue working hard to make our answers a reality.

2021 Women’s Conference planning efforts were spearheaded by Kat Howard and Megan D’Alessio from the Pinterest Inclusion & Diversity team in partnership with conference co-chairs: Jenny Persson, Account Manager in Toronto, and Gracious Nyamupachitu, Marketing Operations Manager in Dublin, with support from over 20 women from across the global Pinterest offices. Video and design assets within this blog post were created in partnership with our agency, HiHello. For more information on the 2021 Women’s Conference, follow along with the Life at Pinterest blog this month. Interested in careers at Pinterest? Explore our open opportunities.