A study was released this January and its results should stun absolutely no one. The study revealed that of the 25% of women working in tech, minority women are less than 10% of it. 5% of women in tech were Asian. Black women only represented 3% while Hispanics made up less at just 1%.

I work in technology and I’ve been in the industry so long that if I make it to November it will be ten years. Making it the longest time I’ve stayed in any industry. I’m always advocating for Black Women in Tech spaces because it’s a soft spot in my heart but I’m also very honest with people when they ask about my experience and observations. I didn’t need to hear the stats from the studies to know that there’s a gender gap in the tech industry as I’ve not only been the only woman in a room I’ve also been the only black woman in a room. I’ve seen the gender wage gap in action and it’s not pretty. In 2024 women in tech are still making significantly less than their counterparts despite knowing the same software and graduating from the same schools. It’s exhausting but right now the only solution seems to be to hire more women in tech to make it better but per usual the simple solution always seems to be the hardest.

An example in action is after my former short-lived career as a flight attendant I ended up as a data steward. It was boring but I was good at it. I was so good at it that the company let go of the other 3 contractors that I was hired with and gave me their hours. I hated math in school because no one encouraged me to even care about it. Girls were supposed to be artsy which I am also. But, this data steward job. I was performing analysis, making charts, and enthusiastically pulling data. I tinkered around with the program so much that I eventually became the subject matter expert and was hired after my contract was over.

Not only was I hired but after some time so was a young man. I was tasked with training him and after a few months of training him, I found out that he was promoted. I had worked so hard on onboarding this gentleman that he got his promotion before little old me who put in more time and effort than him. I spoke to him about it and because he was new he didn’t want to rock the boat. I understood but I didn’t let it go. I’m an only girl and a middle child so I did what I do best. I addressed it since no one else would. I made a list of all of my accomplishments and why I deserved a promotion and my immediate supervisor told me no. She was a woman and I was appalled but not deterred. In the spirit of not giving up, I informed my manager’s manager, and thank heavens she heard me out. But I couldn’t imagine how exhausted others are who couldn’t advocate for themselves because they don’t feel comfortable with it or they’re just grateful to be in the room. Being a minority woman in STEM shouldn’t just be a, “here, be grateful you’re here.” We all deserve better and when there’s more diversity in STEM industries everyone wins. There’s enough money, resources, and knowledge for everyone at the table to share. Tech isn’t going anywhere and I don’t care how great the robots get if there’s not a woman on the team who built said robot.

We won’t even start on the lack of opportunities to get into tech as a minority. Growing up I was just great with computers. It was back when we had computer rooms before Google. When the lone computer in the house would break, I would volunteer to fix it. I remember telling my mom, “It’s already broken. What’s the worst that could happen.” Not all the time did I fix the problem but that curiosity was there 100 percent of the time beyond learning CSS and HTML to build my MySpace and a fanfiction website.

STEM Programs didn’t exist but the Black Community had more sports programming than anyone can count. Do you know what doesn’t cause concussions? Computers. I knew no one that went to school for computers. I didn’t even think of it as a major back then. I even got to high school and realized that my computer teacher wasn’t going to teach us Photoshop and I wanted to learn and wanted everyone to learn. So I taught myself Photoshop and then wrote her tutorials so we would all have that skill handy. I still remember one of the lessons challenging students to create a crayon box in Photoshop. It was basic but we needed it. I ran into that teacher a few years ago at Braddock’s Farm Olympics and she thanked me for the tutorials. It turns out that they still use pieces of the tutorials I created, today.

Looking at my almost ten years in tech, I’m in awe at the lack of people that I see like myself. And that’s why I advocate bringing more STEM programs to communities that may have a little boy or girl like me who never saw themselves represented or was even introduced to STEM possibilities. STEM advocacy and visibility in the black community is getting better but it’s become such a puzzle now that it’s a buzzword and every school is suddenly a STEM school. These STEM schools show some disparities in the ever-evolving world of technology.

Why is this important you ask? The day and age of AI is upon us whether we like it or not or choose to embrace it early or distance ourselves from it. Artificial intelligence is only as good as the technology utilized to build such things and with so little diversity in tech, testing out or even the opportunity to see potential blockers is lost when everyone in the room looks the same and goes through the same life experiences. According to Deloitte one example of the biases in artificial intelligence is “Amazon’s automated recruitment system, which was intended to evaluate applicants based on their suitability for various roles. The system learned how to judge if someone was suitable for a role by looking at resumes from previous candidates. Sadly, it became biased against women in the process.

Because women had previously been underrepresented in technical roles, the AI system thought that male applicants were consciously preferred. Consequently, it penalized resumes from female applicants with a lower rating. Despite making changes, it was no surprise that Amazon eventually ditched the initiative in 2017.”

Imagine if a woman was in the room at the time this program was created and how many headaches they could’ve avoided by looking around the table and noticing what was missing. People and organizations are studying the lack of diversity, Equity, and inclusion in tech but very few are doing anything to rectify or even address the situation.

Biases in artificial intelligence remind me of the Sheryl Sandberg Ted Talk where she spoke about her journey in tech and how putting herself at the table was important to her. She would be at these board meetings and wouldn’t be just the only woman at the table but the only woman period in the entire office to the point where no one knew where the women’s restroom was.

Sandberg’s “Lean In” which encourages more women to sit at the table was published in 2013 and I wish I could say that things have gotten better as far as more women in tech spaces but it hasn’t. The numbers don’t really move. Enticing women to get into tech is hard and getting them to stay is even harder as putting women in tech positions is nice but doing nothing to change the culture is doing women and companies a disservice. According to a 2021 study, 52% of diverse women in tech rate their work/life balance as poor. And if the pandemic taught us anything it taught us time is precious so these people get discouraged and they don’t stay not only at the company but some don’t stay in tech at all. It’s defeating.

I compare the lack of diversity in the tech sphere to the fact that car safety features are still built based on the average 1970s man. I thought people were joking but when I kept hearing it I looked it up. We’ve had all this time to perfect the car and it’s still being built with only men in mind even though women drive. Until we allow women to sit in the metaphorical driver’s seat and lead some of these initiatives we’re still going to be on this crash course opening ourselves up for a future filled with issues that affect everyone.

I imagine maybe sometime soon the floodgates will open allowing more women in tech. Women are known for being creatives and imagine all of the problems that haven’t been solved due to women not being in the room. To even make it in the room these women have to be encouraged to stay in the classroom. Women are 23 percent more likely to drop out of a STEM major. And it’s not surprising because with car safety features still being tailored to men imagine who the curriculum is tailored to.

Unless we address that people learn differently, the different gender disparities when it comes to learning environments, the workplace culture, and the lack of organizations willing to address some of these issues, we’ll never move the needle. Remember I said, if I stay in tech earlier in my speech, tech has been exhausting not because it’s hard but because being a woman in a room full of people who know everything makes it hard to change anything. The culture doesn’t make much room for change unless that change is the technology. We’ll hear agile a lot in tech. And sure the process may be agile but the people and the culture are not.

It’s one thing to say, “Hey I created  this diversity initiativeu,” and another to say, “Hey I cultivated this diversity initiative, I looked at the stats and figured out what worked and what didn’t.” You can’t just throw money and buzzwords at the gender inequities unless that money is going to fill the gender pay gap.

“The most significant barrier to female leadership is the actual lack of females in leadership. The best advice I can give to women is to go out and start something, ideally their own businesses. If you can’t see a path for leadership within your own company, go blaze a trail of your own.” – Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle