“Each for Equal”: 2020 International Women’s Day Theme Resonates in DevSecOps Because It Is a Business Issue

“Equality is not a women’s issue, it’s a business issue.”
— International Women’s Day website

International Women’s Day began in America in 1911; today, millions of people around the globe mark March 8 as a day of action to support gender equality and human rights. This year’s theme, “Each for Equal,” underscores the role each of us play on a daily basis to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, and collectively create a world with more dignity and broader opportunities for all.

Today’s Competitive Advantage is Talent Diversity

Increasingly, the business world is awakening to the fact that diversity — in all forms — is a competitive advantage. A huge advantage. Diversity brings individual dignity and collective dollars to those who make inclusion and equality a corporate priority.

Companies with higher-than-average diversity enjoy 19% higher innovation revenues, reports Harvard Business Review. Additional studies demonstrate a variety of immediate and ongoing business advantages accrued by diverse teams. For example, shareholders enjoy 34% greater returns when higher percentages of women are in the C-suite. McKinsey reports that companies with greater gender diversity are 15% more likely to surpass peers. Results are sweeter for companies who score in the top quarter for racial/ethnic diversity, according to McKinsey: these companies are 35% more likely to outperform competitors.

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Like DevSecOps, We Must Shift Left and “Build Equality In”

Yet, it is no secret more work must be done, especially in the software industry. Here, there is a direct parallel to a DevSecOps approach. We need to view ourselves as individuals, the companies we work for, and our industry as a whole, as participants in pursuit of continuous improvement.

As we say here at Sonatype, exemplary performers “build quality in”. The strongest groups “shift left,” or, include the tools and strategies to support the (Read more...)