Diversity and inclusion in the workplace are initiatives many modern companies are committed to, and VMware Inc. is no exception, according to Yanbing Li, senior vice president and general manager of storage and availability. The company has expanded its program in the past year from simply a focus on women to broader diversity efforts.

“Being a part of VMware and certainly being a female engineering leader myself, this is very near and dear to my heart,” she said.

Li spoke with Rebecca Knight (@knightrm), host of theCUBE, from the Women Transforming Technology 2017 event in Palo Alto, CA. The two discussed bias in the workplace in general and what Li and VMware have been doing to combat it. (*Disclosure below.)

Li has been involved in diversity programs for years. Before she moved to the U.S., she led the China engineering operation for VMware. While there, she led a diversity program aimed at helping bring visibility to and promoting women in the workplace, including starting a series of women in technology conferences in Beijing.

“We started in 2011, and that quickly turned into an industry event, kind of very similar to what’s going on here at Women Transforming Technology,” she said.

After moving back to the states, Li stayed heavily involved in the VMware diversity program in the U.S., including taking part in VMware’s women’s initiative and dialogue circle.

Overcoming workplace bias

One would think that due to cultural differences, China and the U.S. would be far apart on how they deal with bias and diversity issues. Surprisingly, the two countries are fairly similar in how they treat those issues, according to Li.

She did say that China puts a stronger emphasis on overcoming workplace bias compared to the United States. This is surprising given all the U.S. does in the name overcoming the “glass ceiling” women have encountered for decades, Li stated. There are a lot more similarities than differences, though, she pointed out.

“[In] China, there has been a stronger emphasis of women contributing to the society for the past 50, 60 years, so you see a higher percentage of women working. You see a slightly higher percentage of women in tech,” Li said.

But the issues are still the same in the U.S. and China, including dealing with stereotyping of women, unconscious bias, and the lack of women in tech and leadership roles, she explained.

“These issues definitely transcend culture and community,” Li concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the Women Transforming Technology 2017 event. (*Disclosure: TheCUBE is a media partner at the conference. Neither VMware Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE