“The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another." —Serena Williams

This quote perfectly reflects what Elle@Braze and the women behind this initiative stand for. Elle, the employee resource group (ERG) for women at Braze, isn’t trying to change women or their personalities, or teach them to behave, think, or feel differently. Instead, its purpose is to provide tools that will help women to succeed in their lives and careers, while also working to create a better, more empathetic workplace.

Many women today have lives that are vastly different from those lived by our grandmothers. The 20th century saw a significant rise in the number of women pursuing high education and joining the workforce outside their homes, a trend influenced in part by the need to keep businesses running during World War I and II, as well as the rise of the feminist movement in many countries. However, women—particularly women of color and other women with marginalized identities—are still hugely underrepresented in management and leadership positions today and earn on average only 68.6% of what men are paid for the same work, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Through Elle, we want to empower women to take their seat at the table. Elle—which stands for Engage, Learn, Lead, and Empower—was founded in 2018 by an inspirational, motivational, and powerful group of Braze women who were passionate about supporting women within and outside the business. In 2021, with Braze growing to 1,000+ employees, Elle’s leadership team has been hard at work reimagining what the future could look like for women at Braze. Our efforts and programming are designed to ladder up to those individual pillars in order to ensure focus and intention around our events. These initiatives include mentorship programs, a speaker series, leadership training, social gatherings and other fun activities, and programs that provide attendees with tools to support each other and the wider community. Many of our events are open to allies, but some sessions will be solely for those that identify as women, in order to ensure a safe space for difficult conversations. As part of Elle’s efforts, every month we'll be creating shareable, highly visual cards that highlight different women within Braze—starting with our leadership team—and provide them an opportunity to speak up about what they’re proud of.

I am extremely proud to see our Elle leadership committee grow from four women in 2018 to a total of 28 women in 2022. Our leadership team now includes global representation from San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Austin, London, Germany, and Singapore, and we expect participation from these and other offices to continue to grow.

Are you interested in joining Braze? Check out our careers page and explore all of our current opportunities.