Tag Archives: Employee Resource Groups

Embrace equity on International Women’s Day (and every day)

Post Syndicated from Andie Goodwin original https://blog.cloudflare.com/international-womens-day-2023/

Embrace equity on International Women’s Day (and every day)

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Embrace equity on International Women’s Day (and every day)

Happy International Women’s Day! The global theme for 2023 is #EmbraceEquity, which is part of an ongoing effort to raise awareness around “Why equal opportunities are no longer enough.” Today is a time to highlight achievements made by women, but also an opportunity to become better informed, and collaborate and brainstorm about the path forward.

“People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action.” — internationalwomensday.com

Embrace equity on International Women’s Day (and every day)

Help put an end to gender bias and discrimination

Consider taking a few minutes today to learn about pervasive challenges affecting women, including in the workplace. Since unconscious bias is a major driver of hurdles holding women back, it is beneficial for people of all gender identities to educate ourselves about the varied experiences of others.

Here are some resources to get help get you started:

  • Recognize the difference between equity and equality and see why striving for equality can interfere with inclusion-related efforts.
  • Read highlights from the Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey and LeanIn.Org to examine factors that are holding women back from advancement and in many cases making them decide to leave a company. One notable statistic: “For every 100 men who are promoted from entry-level roles to manager positions, only 87 women are promoted, and only 82 women of color are promoted.”
  • Watch a five-minute video of the history of the concept of intersectionality, explained by Kimberlé Crenshaw, who coined the term. Intersectionality refers to the “double bind of simultaneous racial and gender prejudice.”
  • Better understand challenges within the tech sector in the report What (and Who) is Holding Women Back in Tech? One finding from this survey, conducted by Girls Who Code and Logitech, is that 90% of women report experiencing microaggressions at work. The report describes key career drivers and the importance of communities of support.

What is Womenflare and how are we celebrating International Women’s Day?

Womenflare is a Cloudflare employee resource group (ERG) for women and people who advocate for women. We are an employee-led group that is here to empower, represent, and support.

At Cloudflare, we are continuing our tradition of building community and celebrating women’s achievements together throughout March. We are also encouraging discussion on equity vs. equality and how we can champion equity for ourselves and those around us with these internal events in the weeks ahead:

  • Celebrating with comedy: We are kicking things off with some fun and jokes from Laugh.Events! Offering “Laughter as a Service (LaaS),” they will deliver stand-up comedy, musical comedy, and other comedic activities for a celebratory “Workplace Variety Hour.”
  • Equity and allyship chats: After our celebrations, we are opening forums to discuss equity and what this means for each of us in our unique intersectionalities. We have invited some of our fellow employee resource group leads from Asianflare, Nativeflare, and Proudflare to share with us and dive into how we can be both supported and supportive.
  • Equity leadership panel: Our internal leadership panels were always well received in previous years, so we decided not to mess with a good thing. This year, we will be inviting another group of inspirational women leaders in Cloudflare to share their experiences with us and explore the areas where we can promote equity in the workplace.
  • And more: We have so much more planned for March! From Book Club and meetups to Cloudflare TV episodes and networking events, we are partnering across teams to ensure there are plenty of opportunities to participate and join in on the fun and discussions.

No matter how you plan to celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, consider how you can do your part to champion an equitable world. Join the #IWD2023 movement — #EmbraceEquity today (and every day)!

Embrace equity on International Women’s Day (and every day)

Life at Cloudflare

Learn more about how we are cultivating community, including through employee resource groups like Womenflare, via our careers page—and check out our open positions.

To read about our progress on the UN Ten Principles and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), download our latest Impact Report.

International Women’s Day 2022

Post Syndicated from Sofía Celi original https://blog.cloudflare.com/international-womens-day-2022/

International Women’s Day 2022

“I would venture to guess that Anon,
who wrote so many poems without signing them,
was often a woman.” – Virginia Woolf

International Women’s Day 2022

Welcome to International Women’s Day 2022! Here at Cloudflare, we are happy to celebrate it with you! Our celebration is not only this blog post, but many events prepared for the month of March: our way of honoring Women’s History Month by showcasing women’s empowerment. We want to celebrate the achievements, ideas, passion and work that women bring to the world. We want to advocate for equality and to achieve gender parity. And we want to highlight the brilliant work that our women colleagues do every day. Welcome!

This is a time of celebration but also one to reflect on the current state. The global gender gap is not expected to close for another 136 years. This gap has also worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has negatively impacted the lives of women and girls by deepening pre-existing inequalities. Improving this state is a collective effort—we all need to get involved!

Who are we? Womenflare!

First, let’s introduce ourselves. We are Womenflare—Cloudflare’s Employee Resource Group (ERG) for all who identify as and advocate for women. We’re an employee-led group that is here to empower, represent, and support.

Our purpose is not only to celebrate women’s achievements but also to shed a light on inequalities. That is why for International Women’s Day 2022, we’re joining in focusing on the theme of #BreakTheBias throughout our month of events and activities:

We can break the bias in our communities.
We can break the bias in our workplaces.
We can break the bias in our schools, colleges, and universities.
Together, we can all break the bias –
on International Women’s Day (IWD) and beyond

What are some of our internal activities for this month?

Celebrating International Women’s Day

Internally, we are kicking off our celebration on March 8. We will be joined by several women from North Coast hip hop improv comedy group. We hope this fun and freestyle event will encourage participants to think about unconscious biases, breaking them down, and how they can get more involved in empowering the women around them.

Intersectionality and Allyship at Cloudflare

Following our kick-off celebrations, we’re hosting open discussions about intersectionality and allyship alongside some of our fellow Employee Resource Groups including Afroflare, Asianflare, Flarability, and Nativeflare. It’s important to us to include other ERGs in these conversations since the goal of empowerment, representation, and support is shared among us and can’t be done alone. And we want to play closer attention to the layers that form a person’s social identity, creating compounding experiences of discrimination. “All inequality is not created equal,” says Kimberlé Crenshaw, the law professor who coined “intersectional feminism” term in 1989. Understanding the way different inequalities play a role in a person’s life means understanding the history, systematic discrimination, and the non-uniformity of it.

Internal Leadership Panel

Last year, we brought together an internal panel of women leaders at Cloudflare to share their journeys and lessons learned. It was extremely well received, so we decided to build upon its success by inviting another group of internal women leaders to discuss their experiences and insights with us. Some important takeaways from these panel discussions have been the realization that most backgrounds and journeys are vastly different, paths to success are often rocky but rewarding, and perseverance, tenacity, and an open mind, often rule the day. What better way to learn from others and encourage more women to lead!

What can we all do?

Allyship is integral to systemic change. An ally is someone who recognizes unearned privileges in their lives and takes responsibility to end patterns of injustice. At Cloudflare, we’re working hard to build more diverse and equitable teams, as well as create and maintain an environment that is inclusive and welcoming. There are many actions you can take as an ally; some include:

  • Educating yourself: listen to the experiences of your women colleagues and work with them to understand their perspectives.
  • Amplifying women’s opinions and advocating for them: speak up for others and champion them when they need support and encouragement.
  • Taking action in the workplace: if you see inequality or discrimination happening, reach out to discuss further and understand what can be done.
  • Advocating for diversity: talk with your peers and leaders about the ways you can get involved with improving diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s Empowerment Month in your own creative ways! And all throughout the year, remember to empower women and to recognize them in such a way that their work is no longer anonymous. Join the #IWD2022 movement — #BreakTheBias this month and beyond!

International Women’s Day 2022

Protecting Holocaust educational websites

Post Syndicated from Omer Yoachimik original https://blog.cloudflare.com/protecting-holocaust-educational-websites/

Protecting Holocaust educational websites

Protecting Holocaust educational websites

Today is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day, we commemorate the victims that were murdered by the Nazis and their accomplices.

During the Holocaust, and in the events that led to it, the Nazis exterminated one third of the European Jewish population. Six million Jews, along with countless other members of minority and disability groups, were murdered because the Nazis believed they were inferior.

Cloudflare’s Project Galileo provides free protection to at-risk groups across the world including Holocaust educational and remembrance websites. During the past year alone, Cloudflare mitigated over a quarter of a million cyber threats launched against Holocaust-related websites.

Antisemitism and the Final Solution

In the Second World War and the years leading up to it, antisemitism served as the foundation of racist laws and fueled violent Pogroms against Jews. The tipping point was a night of violence known as the Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”). Jews and other minority groups were outlawed, dehumanized, persecuted and killed. Jewish businesses were boycotted, Jewish books burned and synagogues destroyed. Jews, Roma and other “enemies of the Reich” were forced into closed ghettos and concentration camps. Finally, as part of the Final Solution for the Jewish Question, Germany outlined a policy to deliberately and systematically exterminate the Jewish race in what came to be known as the Holocaust.

As part of the Final Solution, the Nazis deployed mobile killing units. Jews were taken to forests near their villages, forced to dig mass graves, undress, and then shot — falling into the mass graves they dug. This was the first step. However, this was “inefficient”. More “efficient” solutions were engineered using deadly gas. Eventually, six main extermination camps were established. They were extremely “efficient” at exterminating humans. Initially, the Nazis experimented with gas vans for mass extermination. Later, they built and operated gas chambers which could kill more humans and do it faster. After being gassed, prisoners would load the bodies into ovens in crematoriums to be burned. In one of the larger death camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau, more than one million Jews were murdered — some 865,000 were gassed and burned on arrival.

Fighting racism with education

Seventy-seven years later, sadly, racism and antisemitism are once again on the rise and have gained traction across Europe during the pandemic and across UK university campuses. Earlier this week, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres decried the resurgence of antisemitism and said that “…the rise in antisemitism — the oldest form of hate and prejudice — has seen new reports of physical attacks, verbal abuse, the desecration of Jewish cemeteries, synagogues vandalized, and last week the hostage-taking of the rabbi and members of Beth Israel Congregation in Colleyville, Texas.”

It is through education that we will defeat bigotry and racism, and we will do our part at Cloudflare — through education and by supporting Holocaust educational organizations.

“Our response to ignorance must be education”
– United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres

Supporting Holocaust educational organizations with Project Galileo

As part of Project Galileo, we currently provide free security and performance products to more than 1,500 organizations in 111 countries. These organizations are targeted by cyber attacks due to their critical work. These groups include human rights defenders, independent media and journalists, and organizations that work in strengthening democracy. Among them are organizations dedicated to educating about the horrors of the Holocaust, and preserving and telling the stories of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust to younger and future generations.

Protecting Holocaust educational websites

Over the past year, we’ve seen cyber attacks on Holocaust-related websites gradually increase throughout the year. These attacks include mostly application-layer attacks that were automatically detected and mitigated by Cloudflare’s Web Application Firewall and DDoS Protection systems.

In May 2021, cyber attacks on Holocaust-related websites peaked as they increased by 263% compared to their monthly average.

Protecting Holocaust educational websites

Applying to Project Galileo

Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better Internet. Part of this mission includes protecting free expression online for vulnerable groups.

The Internet can be a powerful tool in this matter. However, organizations often face attacks from powerful and entrenched opponents, yet operate on limited budgets and lack the resources to secure themselves against malicious traffic intended to silence them. If they are silenced, the Internet stops fulfilling its promise.

To combat the threats, Cloudflare’s Project Galileo provides robust security and performance products for at-risk public interest websites at no cost. Application to Project Galileo is open to any vulnerable public interest website. You can apply via our partners or apply directly to Project Galileo if you don’t have any affiliation with our trusted partners.

A note from Cloudflare’s Jewish employees

Many of us, like myself, are descendants of Holocaust survivors. My grandparents fled from Nazi-occupied Poland to survive. Sadly, my grandparents — as other elderly survivors, are no longer with us. Many of us have faced antisemitism in various forms. Together, we are part of Cloudflare’s Employee Resource Group for Cloudflare’s Jewish community: Judeoflare. We have a responsibility to make sure the world remembers and never forgets the atrocities of the Holocaust and what racism and antisemitism can lead to.

Protecting Holocaust educational websites

Introducing Flarability, Cloudflare’s Accessibility Employee Resource Group

Post Syndicated from Janae Frischer original https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-flarability-cloudflares-accessibility-employee-resource-group/

Introducing Flarability, Cloudflare’s Accessibility Employee Resource Group

Introducing Flarability, Cloudflare’s Accessibility Employee Resource Group

Hello, folks! I’m pleased to introduce myself and Cloudflare’s newest Employee Resource Group (ERG), Flarability, to the world. The 31st anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which happens to fall during Cloudflare’s Impact Week, is an ideal time to raise the subject of accessibility at Cloudflare and around the world.

There are multiple accessibility-related projects and programs at Cloudflare, including office space accessibility and website and product accessibility programs, some of which we will highlight in the stories below. I wanted to share my accessibility story and the story of the birth  and growth of our accessibility community with you.

About Flarability

Flarability began with a conversation between a couple of colleagues, almost two years ago. Some of us had noticed some things about the workspace that weren’t as inclusive of people with disabilities as they could have been. For example, the open floor plan in our San Francisco office, as well as the positioning of our interview rooms, made it difficult for some to concentrate in the space. To kick off a community discussion, we formed a chat room, spread the word about our existence, and started hosting some meetings for interested employees and our allies. After a short time, we were talking about what to name our group, what our mission should be, and what kind of logo image would best represent our group.  

Our Mission: We curate and share resources about disabilities, provide a community space for those with disabilities and our allies to find support and thrive, and encourage and guide Cloudflare’s accessibility programs.

An example of how we have worked with the company was a recent Places Team consultation. As we redevelop our offices and workspaces for a return to what we are calling “back to better”, our Places Team wanted to be sure the way we design our future offices is as inclusive and accessible as possible. You may read more about how we have partnered with the Places Team in Nicole’s story below.

About the Disability Community

There is a lot of diversity amongst disabled people as there are many types of physical or mental impairments. Flarability includes employees with many of them. Some of us have intellectual disabilities such as autism and depression. Some of us have physical disabilities such as deafness and blindness. Several of us are not “out” about our disabilities and that’s definitely okay. The idea of our community is to provide a space for people to feel they can express themselves and feel comfortable. Historically, people with disabilities have been marginalized, even institutionalized. These days, there is much more awareness about and acceptance of disabilities, but there is a lot more work to be done. We are honored to take a central role in that work at Cloudflare.

Introducing Flarability, Cloudflare’s Accessibility Employee Resource Group

Stories from Flarability

I am not the only person with a disability at Cloudflare or who works to make Cloudflare more accessible to those with disabilities. We are proud to have many people with disabilities working at our company and I wanted to enable some key individuals with disabilities and supportive team members to share their experiences and stories.

What does accessibility mean to you?

Watson: “Accessibility means integration, having the same opportunities as everyone else to participate in society. My disability was seen as shameful and limiting, and it was only a few years before I started elementary school that New Jersey integrated children with disabilities into the classroom, ensuring that they received an adequate education. Growing up I was taught to hide who I was, and it’s thanks to the self-advocacy that I am now proudly autistic.”

Do you have a story to share about how workplace accessibility initiatives have impacted you?

Nicole: “Workplace accessibility is one of the top priorities of Cloudflare’s Places Team while we design and build our future office spaces. Feedback from our teammates in all our offices has always been a collaborative experience at Cloudflare. In previous years when opening a new office, the Places Team would crowdsource feedback from the company to adjust, or repair office features. Today, the Places Team involves a sync with Flarability leaders in the office design/construction process to discuss feedback and requests from coworkers with accessibility needs.

We also have an ergonomics and work accommodations program to ensure each of our teammates is sorted with workplace equipment that fits their individual needs.

Lastly, we want to provide multiple outlets for our teams to advocate for change. The Places Team hosts an internal anonymous feedback form, available to any teammate who feels comfortable submitting requests in a safe space.”

Why is accessibility advocacy important?

Janae: “Accessibility is important in the workplace. However, when people are not advocating for themselves, accessibility initiatives might not be leveraged to their fullest extent. When you don’t communicate what is holding you back from being more productive, you are doing a disservice to the company, but most importantly you. Perhaps you work more efficiently with fewer distractions, yet your boss has assigned you a desk that is right next to a noisy area of the office. What would happen if you asked them for a different workspace? For example, I am hard of hearing. As an outsider, you may not notice, as I appear to be able to carry on a verbal, face-to-face conversation with ease. In reality, I am lip reading, attempting to filter ambient noise, and watching others’ body/facial movements to fully understand what is going on. I work best when in quieter, less distracting environments. However, I am able to work in loud, distracting environments, too; I am just not able to perform at my best in this kind of environment.

Lastly, I’d like to highlight that one day I was casually chatting with a co-worker about my struggles and a company co-founder overheard me. They offered to support me in any and all ways possible. The noisy, distracting office space I had was changed to a workspace in a corner, where less foot traffic and cross conversations happened. This simple adjustment and small deed that our co-founder acted on inspired me to help start Flarability. I want all employees to feel they can advocate for themselves and if they are not comfortable enough to do so, then to know that there are people who are willing and able to help them.”

What’s next for our group?

We are looking forward to growing our Flarability membership, globally. We have already come a long way in our brief history, but we have many more employees to reach and support, company initiatives to advise, and future employees to recruit.

Thank you for reading our personal stories and the story of Flarability. I encourage all of you who are reading this to do some more reading about accessibility and find at least one way to support people with disabilities in your own community.

We would also love to connect with accessibility ERG leaders from other companies. If you’re reading this and are interested in collaborating, please hit me up at [email protected].