Danai Antoniou, co-founder and Chief Scientist at Gradient Labs, shares hard-won insights from her journey through systemic bias in tech. From salary transparency to challenging microaggressions, she outlines the practical changes leaders can make now to support the next generation, and ensure equity is built into every level of leadership.
I’m a woman in a senior tech leadership role and faced my share of systemic bias. Now, as a founder, I’m making sure the next generation faces less of it.
Normalise salary transparency
If you’re unaware you’re underpaid, you’re less likely to ask for more. Yet, talking about salary is taboo in many workplaces. To break the culture of silence, businesses should encourage employees to share.
I’ve seen how few women apply for forward-looking, deeply technical roles
During my time at a leading fintech company, for instance, we created internal groups for people who identify as women where we openly discussed our salaries, promotion outcomes, and evaluations – a safe space where we felt comfortable talking. It doesn’t just promote fairness, but it also benefits team cohesion, morale, and employee turnover – so it pays to be transparent.
Don’t dismiss candidates too quickly
I’ve seen how few women apply for forward-looking, deeply technical roles – and the few who do will often downplay their abilities and achievements, which you must factor into your recruitment process. Your pipeline can’t improve if you don’t address the imbalance at the top of the funnel.
We’ve made it a rule to carefully consider every woman candidate, recognising that sometimes you need to read between the lines. For instance, women often fail to highlight critical interpersonal skills on their resumes, such as time management or leadership.
Use inclusive language consistently
As business leaders, it’s our responsibility to make gender-neutral language the default, in hiring and how we speak about users, customers, and colleagues. This simple change sends a powerful message: everyone is welcome, included, and valued, regardless of gender. In industries where most applicants identify as male, our choice of language can either widen or narrow the door.
Challenge bias in every instance – even in micro-moments
Despite my role as Chief Scientist, people will often default to addressing my male co-founders. It may seem minor and unintentional, but a constant lack of recognition takes a toll. Thankfully, my co-founders don’t share that bias. They actively redirect questions related to my area of responsibility and expertise back to me, stressing that gender plays no role in hierarchy.
Biases are deeply ingrained and not always easy to unlearn. However, to put biases out of business for good, we must make a point of redirecting, crediting, and amplifying often overlooked voices.
Create an unstructured space to build trust
When we launched Gradient Labs, we didn’t just jump on Zoom – we moved to Seville and spent two weeks living and working together. Debates over meals and late-night strategy sessions broke down any lingering, subconscious hierarchy from our previous roles and helped us to understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
Moving in together might not be practical for every team, but finding time and space for in-person interaction, especially across levels of seniority or cultural lines, makes difficult conversations down the line far easier.
Turn bias into motivation fuel
It’s easy to let that negativity wear you down, but doing so simply validates the bias and ensures the next generation of talented women face the same unfair treatment. Rather than letting bias consume you, use it as fuel. That doesn’t mean every meeting has to descend into an argument – sometimes, building what they said you couldn’t is proof enough.
Danai Antoniou is co-founder and Chief Scientist at Gradient Labs
