Women Code Too!: The Importance of Diversifying the Tech Industry with Women of Color

Silicon Valley is a place of innovation and future-focused ideas. However, like the rest of the world, the workforce that fills the world’s biggest tech firms is predominantly made of white men. Although this trend isn’t surprising, it’s still slightly disappointing, given that the ideas and experiences of tech employers have enormous impacts on the products that have re-shaped our global norms.

To get at the importance of minority women’s role in developing technology, it’s important to look at the demographic numbers in the industry itself. According to a report from the Kapor Center and Arizona State University, women who identify as Black, LatinX or Native American/Alaskan Native make up only 2% of 177 Silicon Valley firms employees and only 12% of all women employed in computer and information science occupations. While there is more representation for White and Asian women in the overall workforce, their workforce numbers still show disparate representation in the tech field.

What explains this huge gap in female representation? According to a report from the Guardian, the answer isn’t just one thing. Misconceptions about gender in STEM education, sexist work cultures and lack of representation of women in leadership roles are just a few of the reasons why women aren’t as represented in the tech workforce. Plus, as stated in a report by Grand Canyon University, pay gaps in science and engineering jobs are as high as 59% higher than other industries.

So why is it important that women of color achieve greater representation, pay and attention in tech? There are many compelling answers.

The first is that among populations of color in the tech industry, women sometimes lead the way. According to the same study from Grand Canyon University, there are 28% more Black or African American females working in STEM than Black or African American males and 11% more Hispanic or Latino females working in STEM than Hispanic or Latino males. Hopefully, increases in Black, Hispanic and Latino females in the industry would provide leadership to the…