ACA Chooses to #EmbraceEquity to Resist Inequality

ACA, in partnership with our employee resource group (ERG) Women Empowerment at ACA (WE@ACA), hosted a full month of celebrations focused on all of our hardworking women in the workplace. We kicked off the month on March 8^th with International Women’s Day, highlighting themes of how to “Embrace Equity,” and closed the month with the first release of “SHE SAID, a WE@ACA newsletter”.

WE@ACA welcomed Marissa Orr, former executive at Google and Facebook and best-selling author, as a guest speaker on International Women’s Day. The discussion provided great insight into the struggles of women and single moms dealing with glass ceilings in a workforce that has traditionally been set up as a zero-sum game. She points out that women are working in an outdated system that needs to be rewired to better meet the needs of a modern workforce and economy. She recommends focusing on what we can control, defining success on our own terms by measuring our wellbeing and fostering our own self-empowerment.

ACA Book Club spent the month reading and reflecting on “Hidden Figures - the American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped Win the Space Race” by Margot Lee Shetterly. This book was chosen in collaboration with the Connected Black Professionals ERG and WE@ACA to celebrate Black History Month and Women's History Month throughout February and March. The club had a meaningful conversation and thoughtful sharing of ideas about the systemic racism and misogyny faced by the Black Women of West Computing at Langley (later NASA) and how they quietly (and not so quietly) fought for their right to be present.

The newly launched "SHE SAID, a WE@ACA newsletter" creates an opportunity for employees to hear from and about women across our company, sharing their voices and highlighting impactful issues for women in and outside of the workplace. The first volume of the newsletter contains interviews with various women at the firm discussing what embracing equity means to them, the importance of celebrating women in the workplace, having access to mentors, staying authentic to yourself, and the non-negotiables about equal pay and equal opportunity.

ACA values a culture of growth and growing as a team. We believe in motivating our talent to grow and succeed. Our ambitions demand that we invest in recruiting and nurturing great talent from diverse backgrounds. We foster a culture that promotes individual and team contributions, enables business growth, and creates compelling careers. We set aspirational objectives and reward exceptional accomplishments.

We can all truly embrace equity. It's not just something we say. It's not just something we write about. It's something we need to think about, know, value and embrace.