Altice USA Celebrates Women’s History Month

Altice USA is proud to celebrate Women’s History Month and reflect on the contributions of women over the course of history, in the workplace and out in our communities. Throughout the month, Altice USA and its businesses will engage in activities and events in our community and company to acknowledge the contribution of women and support a continued commitment to creating an inclusive and equitable workplace.

Some of the ways the company plans to celebrate women this month include:

• Celebrating STEM: In partnership with HISTORY, we have created a curriculum on Women in STEM. This curriculum will explore the contributions women have made to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Altice USA will be sharing the curriculum with community groups and schools throughout our footprint. Download the content here.
• Community Events: Altice USA is proud to join our local communities for events and activities that commemorate and inspire others to celebrate the many achievements women have made and continue to make to society. From WV to TX to AZ the company will be using the #womenshistorymonth2021 hashtag to recap of these events across our footprint. 
• HER Impact Network: Altice USA’s Employee Affinity group, HER Impact Network, will be hosting a series of virtual events for employees that explore gender equality, female leadership, allyship and inspiring women throughout history.
• Women’s History Month Specials: Our news brands, Cheddar and News 12, will be airing specials in honor of Women’s History Month. There will be themed guest segments and profiles of notable women and women-owned businesses daily.
• International Women’s Day: This year’s IWD theme is #ChooseToChallenge. The company will be facilitating a #ChooseToChallenge campaign for employees to commit to challenging gender bias and acting as an ally.
• Leadership Panel Discussion: Altice USA will be facilitating a panel discussion with senior leaders to discuss gender equality, female leadership, and allyship.

To kick off the month, we spoke with a few women here at Altice USA about what they think people can do to support advancing women in the workplace. Here’s what they had to say:

• “Provide mentorship and coaching opportunities. Women have historically been left out of being mentored and thus, have been disadvantaged by not having that person who they can turn to for professional advice as they navigate their careers. It's just not about turning to a manager or a friend for advice, there is a need for more structure and accountability on both parts, and making sure it's a good match. All different kinds of mentorship structures are important, women mentoring other women, men mentoring women and women mentoring men. I think a critical piece is that it can start as mentoring or coaching, but to push change it needs to grow into sponsoring women. Being vocal in support of their advancement or capabilities.”  – Caitlin, Sales
   
• “Eliminate double standard biases. Women are often seen as too aggressive, pushy, and angry when exhibiting the same behaviors that knight men as great leaders. The “motherly” role for women is embraced- helpful, kind, soothing- but when women step up to create a name or brand for themselves that doesn’t fit the “motherly” stereotype there is resistance to accept her as a leader. Being assertive and opinionated is received differently when delivered by a male. To change, we need to remove stereotypes and biases to create a culture that fosters leadership for results, actions, creativity, honesty (even if brutally honest at times) and resourcefulness. All leaders have tough decisions, challenging conversations, ambitions and drive. Women should not have extra work to compete and to progress in the workplace because she needs to overcome stereotypes and meet social expectations along with proving her capabilities to do the task required to progress.” – Jamie, Customer Care Quality
   
• “People can offer praise to high-performing female coworkers and challenge and motivate them to take that next step- go for that promotion, ask for that raise. We should be doing this for any deserving colleague regardless of gender, but it’s even more important with women because there are less of us in leadership positions. I know female colleagues who second guess themselves, bow out of opportunities for fear of losing work life balance, or simply think they won’t be accepted on a male-dominated team. Be their cheerleaders - workplace dynamics will not change unless we action it!” – Janet, Communications

Visit our Diversity and Inclusion page to learn more about Altice USA’s ongoing diversity efforts.