In The News

 For this blog post I found an interesting article about the tech industry. The focus of the article asks the question “ Why are women leaving the tech industry in droves?” Leaving the industry as you read on does not appear to be the only issue. With companies like Apple only seeing a 20 percent employment rate of women its shocking to think women even hold powerful roles in this industry. There is an interesting video along with the article and it focuses on the idea of hostile work environments for women. Women are battling gender biases in tech and finances areas especially according to the video. This most definitely made me think of the Feminist Approach and how the article talks about the men needing to make the change in order for women to feel more comfortable. The four types of gender biases experienced by women is 1. When women feel they need to prove themselves 2 the tight rope, which is the idea where women need to walk a fine line between being masculine, and be seen as equal but then expected to be feminine 3 is the gender biased for women who are mothers and 4 “the tug of war” the competition between women becomes increased because not a lot of women can make it through the ranks so they branch out against other women.

     This sort of environment is not conducive for career women and tech organizations to take on the Feminist Approach. If there is no change there could be a further resistance from men and women but also emancipation of the women like the leaders mentioned above. But is it really still coming to this? There cannot be these existing atmospheres, its 2015 the gender biased idea is so beyond our capabilities and the tech company of all industries should be about being “up to date” on everything. It is the job of management to install a zero gender biased tolerance policy because women with masters degrees working in the industry for over a decade should not feel pushed out by men who cannot let go of their own egos. I cannot stress enough how this makes the men who do not share this view look bad and that’s just as much of a problem.

  Apple isn’t the only one with low female rates in the workplace. It was incredibly surprising to se that the Pinterest team only has 21 percent of women working on their team. Pinterest screams women to me, for as many women who use it you would think it would be predominately women.  To attempt to fix this the Pinterest team it creates a more diverse team. Facebook also is looking to get more women involved by creating workshops for women to gain leadership skills. This sort of activism is the only way to break down the patriarchal system. Not simply the women but the men as well. Let the men know they are affected by this system and the word feminist isn’t only for women. I had just had a conversation with a man in my interpersonal communication class and he told me he didn’t believe that gender biases in the workforce were an actual thing anymore, so ill be sending him this article and saying the truth is that it is well hidden.

 http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-women-tech-20150222-story.html#page=2  

Outpost

                  Corporate Blog Post

          For this post I explored different corporate Facebook and Instagram pages. I started with Marshalls and looked at Nike but then my roommate came home and she was talking about work (She works at Outpost) and I thought, what a challenge a food company may have. It’s easy for apparel places to promote online with options for ordering online or pinning clothing outfits to other pages. For Marshalls you could pin, or tweet professional pictures and Nike followed sports stories that featured their products but outpost is a small natural food store how could they do this?

    When I looked up the facebook page I was surprised at the small network outpost has but the charm they exuded. I felt like when I read their posts that I was reading the posts of my fellow friends on FB, they were charming and funny! They had the perfect angle and that was humor!

 They used this and claimed their Ginger Chicken Soup was so good it would make you want to break out in song. I smiled SO big! I’ll be damned if I wouldn’t get this soup just because of the choice of reference! There is also a soup video making a reference to Coming to America that would make everyone smile.  So they post about daily items and hot soups, they post about internal politics and provide information on products they carry. The target audience may be smaller than an apparel company and even smaller for being a local but the communication in this business seems to give off the horizontal feel and a very casual approach. Without working there I feel like the atmosphere very much reflects the page we see. For a grocery co-op they provide benefits to even the cashiers (like my roommate) and if you come for at least half your scheduled shift you can leave without consequence. We can see even the politics of the company on its Facebook page. It invites people to vote for Board members and even displays the profiles of the people running. This is incredibly inviting and allows the co-op members to feel like they have a say in what Outpost looks like. This is very refreshing. I feel like displaying community owned pages such as this one allows consumers to feel like their business is better appreciated and provides a more personal service.

   I think what would help Outpost on their page would be posting recipes and natural/vegan meals that can all be found at Outpost, Or if they created a calendar of deals. Right now they seem to focus on the soup of the day and they do it in a creative way but that can only draw in so many customers. If they had a daily recipe people might be more inclined to check that daily or even right before shopping for meal ideas. They can target a different audience this way as well. For the organic eaters, the vegetations or the vegans.

Event Recap

For this blog post I am referring to the Pantherfest panel group meeting I attended last friday. As many of you know Pantherfest is a fall welcome concert UWM puts on each year. Last year and this year i have been appointed through my work on the Campus Activities Board to work on the panel. Eight years ago when the tradition of Pantherfest had begun it was completely ran by staff. Over the last few years the panel has evolved to be more student ran. Each year a student Co-Chair is elected by the panel to work besides our staff chair and each committee also has a staff and student chair. This I felt worked as an example of the Human Relations approach. The flow of power moves more horizontally than vertically. From start to finish they are only making decisions as a group in its entirety or the entirety of its small sub groups and the staff does not over power the students or vice versa. I feel like our working group fits in with what McGregor's family metaphor. Our overall Co-chairs would act as more of the parents and the rest act as little workers but all for a common goal.
  Out of the four flows I felt that Activity Coordination/ Self- structuring was the most relevant to our group. The Pantherfest panel is responsible for the panther street fest as well as pantherfest as well as all of the tiny details in-between. The groups are broken down into the panther street fest working group, marketing, logistics and artist selection. Each working group is working toward the larger goal but individually meets weekly to successfully complete the smaller goals they must be achieved in order to create the event as a whole.
  At our first meeting we spent a great deal of time looking at applicants for the student co-chair. The group agreed on policies and standards at which the chair must fit. We each took time discussing each applicant and then voted which our top three would be in order to bring them in for interviews which will occur in our second meeting. Overall i would say that the Pantherfest working group is a great organization to be apart of for its ability to create safe horizontal communication and even organization between the goals and times to achieve that goal. Below i posted some pictures of the working group and our view of the festival and concert!

About me

Hello All,
 My name is Kayla Schwartz and I am new to the communication program. I am excited to explore the comm world a little more though! I have some experience with events and coordinating because I am a chair of a committee on UWM's Campus Activities board and have found that I enjoy the various inter-workings of this field. Even though I have some experience of my own I am looking forward to learning more through this course and also through all of you and your experience!
 

On a more personal note I thought I would give you all an insight into personality. My favorite thing to share is that I have a puppy, although she doesn't seem like a puppy anymore being 7 months now but I got her at six weeks. She's a black lab/ collie named Rory. I admit having a dog in college is a lot of work but it's very much worth it. 

 Besides taking my pup to the dog park I also have an interest in photography but mainly just for fun and a little bit of extra cash. I have done family pictures, baby pictures, head shots and engagement pictures. I love just going out and taking shots around Milwaukee or wherever I am exploring too. 

Otherwise I love movies, books and sports (I coach high school basketball) Now that I'm college and ready to explore the world but on limited funds I try to take at least one road trip a year! This year I'm hoping to make it down to New Orleans! Cant wait to hear about you guys!