00:01This is the first Daring Women's Summit. How did it come to be?
00:04It is the first Daring Women's Summit. We have been doing a lot of programs for women over the years
00:09and we felt like it was time for us to create a day of talks around women.
00:15And when we thought about what type of women we would want there, we really felt like we wanted to
00:20bridge the gap between art and technology.
00:22What message do you want attendees to take away then today?
00:26I think inspiration is really the message. All these women are incredibly inspirational and have all faced their own challenges
00:33to get to the top of their fields
00:35and all have particular insights on how it worked for them and how they brought other women up with them.
00:42I know The Full Frontal has sort of embraced the whole woman fronting a late night show, feminist television label,
00:49but does it ever get annoying that those are the questions that people lead with in interviews?
00:54Well, that's a good question for Sam. After a while, you kind of want people to start asking her a
01:01different question,
01:02but I think they eventually will. But I think that people are genuinely interested in how she feels about it
01:08and how excited she is about it.
01:10How do you get that title, that job?
01:13Well, I made it up, so that's probably the best explanation.
01:15At Google, actually, we had done research around why girls weren't pursuing computer science, and the number two reason was
01:23perception of the career.
01:24It accounted for almost 30% of the decision, only second to adult encouragement.
01:28And so when we found that out, we decided, okay, as a strategy, we then have to work with storytellers
01:34and figure out how do we change culture around computer science and engineering
01:38so it's more inclusive and more interesting to more people.
01:41In doing this, have you seen the data actually shift?
01:45So we're starting to see it shift slowly. I would say what we are starting to see is an increase
01:50in demand in computer science nationally.
01:52Those are data points that are starting to be released. I think we have to be careful because even if
01:58demand increases, we can't leave people behind.
02:00And some of the numbers around girls and black and Hispanic boys are still only sort of tilting as opposed
02:05to really shifting.
02:07And so with the demand increase now more than ever, we need to catch the wave and make sure everybody's
02:12included in it.
02:12Donna, since we're talking about daring women, I have to ask, you started your career working with Ann Klein and
02:17then you decided to start your own fashion line.
02:20That's pretty daring. How did you decide to do that?
02:24I wanted a small wardrobe for me and my friends.
02:28But my bosses at the time said, I still wanted to do Ann Klein, Ann Klein too.
02:33And then they said to me, Donna, you couldn't do anything small if you tried.
02:37The rest is history.
02:39Why do you think events like this are so important for women?
02:42I find them inspiring.
02:45Talking and seeing, how'd she do it? How'd she do it? How'd she do it?
02:49That's really important.
02:50You know, there are so many women out there that said, well, how'd you do that?
02:55And you really have to say that the way you do it is from inside your heart.
03:01It's never from your brain.
03:03It's what comes naturally, what's being given to you.
03:06There's a reason and purpose for everything.
03:08So you mentioned that tech events can be very heavily male.
03:11What do you think can be done to sort of increase the amount of women who are at these events
03:15and in tech spaces?
03:15Yeah. So I love the fact that more women are starting companies.
03:19I think that's something that I'm really passionate about.
03:21And, you know, I work like a crazy person, but I still try and do calls with female entrepreneurs, raising
03:26funding, etc.
03:27And I think we're seeing a lot of progress.
03:30Secondly, I think that the venture capital industry has to make sure that they back more women
03:34and that they don't hold women to a different standard than they do to, let's say, a male founder.
03:39Do you think people hear the show and say, oh, black women are just like us?
03:43Yeah, I think so.
03:44Or some of them, they're like, oh, it just like opens their eyes to what is out there.
03:49And I think like a lot of times, like in particular, white men are like allowed to be multidimensional and
03:55do like lots of things.
03:56So I think that's slowly starting to change for women of color, which I think is so exciting.
03:59I'm just happy that Two Dope Queens can be kind of a part of that movement, if we are.
04:03I don't know, but.
04:04You are.
04:04OK, cool.
04:06Great.
04:06So one of the things I wanted to talk to you a little bit about is the fact that there's
04:10so you see so few women of color in comedy.
04:12Why do you think that is?
04:13Why are we not getting our faces out there?
04:15Why are we not getting the same kind of representation of other people?
04:18I think there's like a lot of reasons.
04:20But what I like is that things like podcasting and YouTube and Instagram, if you will, and
04:26sketch, right, it's all like allowing black women to find their own way to get their voices out there.
04:31And I think it's very different than how it was in the 80s where it's like you had to be
04:35on Johnny Carson or
04:37you like didn't really have a career.
04:39It's like you could do kind of almost anything and create your own career and create an audience that's going
04:44to find you.
04:44And I think that's really important.
04:46Absolutely.
04:47So what do you think Hollywood could do to be more inclusive and more diverse?
04:51I mean, I think that, you know, shows like ours succeeding, you know, shows people that it's more than just
04:58sort of lip service.
04:59You know, it's like it's one thing to be like, oh, yeah, it would be great to have like other
05:02kinds of shows.
05:03But at the end of the day, it's a business.
05:04And people who have the money, you know, the studios, the networks and everything like that have to realize that,
05:11oh, you know what?
05:12There's a whole audience here that we're not catering to that don't see themselves represented.
05:16And I think when shows start to succeed that look different, that's when the sort of progress starts to happen
05:22and people start to realize like, oh, OK, like, let's get more of these, you know,
05:26because there's a huge, you know, hugely underrepresented audience out there.
