Happy International Women’s Day!
In Europe, March 8 has been recognized as a day to campaign for gender equity and uplift women’s accomplishments since 1911. In the United States, the holiday wasn’t recognized until 2011, when President Obama declared March to be Women’s History Month. To honor both the international day and the whole month, the ScriptDrop team is kicking off another set of special blog posts.
For Black History Month, we put the spotlight on notable Black healthcare startup founders. (If you missed those posts, read them here. ) For Women’s History Month, we’re going to honor our own team members in a series of interviews. Why? Not only is our company led by women, but women also hold senior positions in the majority of our teams. That’s unusual in the startup space, and even more unusual for a technology company.
For these reasons and for our overall goals, ScriptDrop fits neatly within two of the missions of the International Women’s Day organization:
- To assist women to be in a position of power to make informed decisions about their health
- To elevate and advance gender parity in technology and celebrate the women forging innovation
Healthcare
ScriptDrop’s whole reason for being is to improve healthcare access for all. Women and femme people are often limited in their access to quality care and prescriptions, for a laundry list of reasons:
- Globally, poverty rates for women and girls have increased in the past few years, putting them at increased risk for negative social determinants of health
- Globally, women are less likely to be employed, but are also overrepresented in low-paying, vulnerable jobs
- Poor investment into sexual and reproductive health has increased the disease burden on women
- Medical research on women’s health issues continues to be critically underfunded
- Women’s health concerns are often ignored, delaying diagnoses and proper care
- The United States has the highest maternal and infant mortality rates of any high-income country
Our team is trying to help by making it easier for any patient to get their prescriptions in a timely, efficient way from the pharmacy of their choice. But there is so much work to be done to ensure the safety and health of women.
Technology
So in addition to continuing our work in healthcare access, we’re turning the mirror back at ourselves. How well do we care for our female and femme employees? One thing is for certain: just by existing we support the elevation of women in tech. There are a lot of reasons why women might not thrive in software engineering or technical roles, and it’s not due to individual ability or ambition.
- Lack of sufficient exposure to and education about computing at a young age
- Gendered stereotypes about certain professions combined with a strict enforcement of the gender binary
- Unsafe work places and/or culture, due to lack of training on sexual harassment and diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Inequitable work policies, such as a lack of parental leave
- Biased hiring practices (i.e., recruiters or hiring managers picking candidates based on subjective qualities, like “They remind me of me,” or “I feel like I could have a beer with them”)
ScriptDrop is working to sustain a safe, equitable environment for all employees. It’s an ongoing journey of improvement, not a task we can cross off of our to-do list. In our upcoming employee interviews, we’ll learn how team members see our work environment, how they’re taking control of their own healthcare decisions, and how we – as ScriptDrop, a startup, and a tech company – can improve our culture to support and encourage all employees.
Keep your eyes on The Beat for more!