YouTube's CEO praised Netflix for pushing the tech industry to be better for women

YouTube and Netflix are battling over the attention of viewers, especially younger ones, but they can still recognize when each other are doing good work.

In a Vanity Fair op-ed this week, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki praised Netflix CEO Reed Hastings for making gender diversity a priority.

"Human Resources departments and diversity leads play a critical role, but they need the commitment and attention of the C.E.O. to succeed," she wrote.

"A great example of a C.E.O. taking this issue seriously is Reed Hastings of Netflix. In an effort to build a more flexible work culture, he took a strong stand on paid family leave. That policy led to a cascade effect, with companies like Microsoft and Amazon soon providing better family leave options, helping to limit the adverse effects that having children can have on a woman's career."

And it's good for the business as well. Wojcicki said that increasing family leave has helped Google retain female employees.

"When we increased paid maternity leave from 12 to 18 weeks, the rate at which new moms left dropped by 50 percent," she wrote.

A commitment to gender diversity isn't the only interesting piece of Netflix's work culture. Netflix is famous for not tolerating either failing employees or brilliant jerks, and it's culture was outlined in an iconic 2009 slide deck by CEO Reed Hastings. If you want to take a look at Reed Hastings' 2009 slide deck, scroll down: