Donna Carpenter, the co-owner and CEO of Burton Snowboards, is a huge proponent of women’s rights and she has the receipts to prove it. When word spread about the upcoming Women’s March in Washington, D.C. she knew that many of her employees would be making the trek from Vermont. That’s why she offered to cover two nights hotel and $250 towards a plane ticket for any worker planning on attending the march. As a proponent of women’s equality, she wanted to do her part to help with the March’s numbers and help her employees’ experience. In an interview with Cosmopolitan she said, “Having a hotel room makes all the difference.” (As someone who has traveled a lot for work, I totally agree. This woman has a heart of gold.)
Carpenter’s interview is a great read if you’re especially interested in gender equity issues in the workplace. This woman has made a tremendous effort to practice what she preaches by working to make Burton a great place to work for everyone. And it seems she’s doing a pretty good job. Carpenter explained:
I have been working on the issue of gender equality at Burton for 13 years now. It's been a passion of mine to find more women leaders internally and externally, and to make sure that women feel that they're as much a part of the snowboarding community as men are.
Thirteen years ago, less than 10 percent of our leaders were women and now it's over 40 percent. My senior team is fifty-fifty. It's made us a better company. All the men appreciate that we're more family-friendly, and that we've started to look at employees more holistically. When you address women's issues, you address work-life balance and quality of life.
Once again we see that helping marginalized folks ends up helping everybody. When working to be more inclusive there is really nothing (bad) to lose — only great things to gain.