“The future never just happened. It was created.” — Mae Jemison
When Candice Dixon quit her job at the height of the pandemic in 2020, she had one goal in mind. “I knew one thing for sure,” she said. “Whatever came next, it had to be work that would allow me to support people who look like me.”
Like many accomplished Black women jaded by a relentless cycle of poor representation, her persistence was fueled by a mix of hope and frustration that something has to change. This brought her to NPower, a nonprofit advancing racial and gender equity in the tech workforce, and from there, she launched Command Shift, a national consortium of women and allies to help women of color achieve social mobility through employment in the technology sector. The coalition has set a bold goal to double the representation for women of color in the technology industry by 2030. This will require a seismic shift in accessibility. That means new forms of access to education and skills, financial stability, psychological support, and industry connections. But for Candice, this is not just about a moral imperative but also an economic one. Their mission, grounded in extensive research, began with the finding that in 2021, over 2.7 million women of color had existing or transferable skills for the technology industry. For perspective, In 2022, net tech employment in the USA totaled an estimated 9.2million. Of that figure, it is estimated 270,000 are black women, equaling less than 3%. At the time of ‘Command Shift’ coalition creation in 2021, there were simultaneously unanimous calls for racial justice following the murder of George Floyd and a sense that finally the country was united on a quest for change. We heard sweeping calls and commitments to bring about change from businesses and corporate America. The rhetoric showed signs of hope. Yet the data told a different story. For people of color and women in particular, the net result in years since has been that the pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities in the labor market. Per Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment data, the jobless rate for Black women aged 20 and over is one-fourth higher than the national average of all Americans in that same age group.
So far in 2023 things aren’t looking much brighter. The Supreme Court’s ruling against affirmative action threatens the growing momentum of DE&I initiatives. We have seen a disproportionate amount of women impacted by Tech Layoffs and a regress in scope of hybrid and remote working models, which tend to have more complex impacts on women of color who often shoulder unpaid caregiving responsibilities. Three years on from what many thought could rid the workplace of the banality of tradition and create a new world of work, it seems so much has changed, yet for many nothing has changed at all.
Yet, on the employer’s side, these figures should provide far more reason for alarm than failed 2020 engagement strategies. Data from McKinsey shows that companies with diverse leadership outperform their competitors. For innovation to meet the demands of the future, there needs to be a meeting of diverse minds to design products and solutions. For tech companies, how better to understand their audiences than to hire employees who represent them? This has never been more critical than the moment we are living in right now. We are witnessing the rise of AI at a dizzying rate without any clear pulse check on the impartiality of minds behind the algorithms and plenty of affirmations about its role in human betterment, yet no clear strategy for ensuring inclusive thinking in an industry that wields enormous influence over our daily lives.
So against the challenges women of color face, how can we work to make rhetoric a reality?. In an industry that has openly committed to broader inclusion, what are some tactical steps to bring about real change? I spoke to Candice Dixon and Command Shift alumni Daney Forbes about two meaningful and profound steps to help women of color address the gap.
The Economics Of Essential Encouragement:
There is arguably no greater fuel for change than the power of conviction for those who need it the most. For the students and alumni of Command Shift, that sense of self-belief needs to be learned and, above all, fostered. These women have often left school due to socio-economic circumstances or graduated yet are underemployed. The trap of underemployment is a hard one to break. Overall, women are significantly more likely to be underemployed in their first job; 47% of female college graduates are initially underemployed, compared to 37% of males. This is often related to a cycle of income necessity and generational poverty that, for many, is impossible to break. How can you pause and upskill when surviving alone is a feat? For Daney Forbes, her path was challenged by the death of both of her parents by the age of 14, which made economic survival a priority at what was the most defining time of her academic life. Although she always loved math and problem solving and graduated high school with excellent grades, she worked in Trader Joe’s, supporting herself and her sister. She felt exhausted of chance when she discovered Command Shift online. She said this free program sounded too good to be true; she first questioned its validity. Yet, it has truly changed her life and set her on a path that has broken boundaries for her entire family. For Daney, encouragement wasn’t just about entry but navigating to upskill and earn more. She has worked in the IT departments of some of the largest banks in the world, and through ongoing training supported by NPower programs and certifications, her initial role as an IT helpdesk has evolved into a career in cybersecurity, where she currently works for a Fortune 100 company. She shares that she has always been the only black woman on every team she has ever worked in. In the absence of the typical structure of parental support accompanied by a sense of being the only woman who looks like you, a source of nurture and encouragement comes from her peers and advocates at Command Shift. This source of encouragement and collective belief has a profound impact on the lives of women who have been rendered invisible by circumstance.
The Net Impact Of Networks
Networks are undeniably one of the most powerful structures candidates have to support opportunity and advancement. This is evident in research on the analogous practice of referral programs. Research conducted by Zippia found that referrals are 4X more likely to be offered jobs than standard applicants, and employee referrals count for 30-50% of all Tech hires. For women of color, this has proved particularly disadvantageous. A 2018 analysis by PayScale reports that “White women are 12% less likely, men of color are 26% less likely, and women of color are 35% less likely to receive a referral” than a white man. This impact on connections and networks is best summed up by Sheryl Sandberg when she said, ‘There aren’t more women in tech because there aren’t more women in tech.’ The reality is that networks are often a privilege afforded to those born into social capital. For many, intervention is the only way, and for Command Shift, this is facilitated through a partnership network that includes Fortune 500 companies and delivered with clear intention. They partner with employers to provide dedicated internships to their students and work with them on the professional and soft skills needed to navigate networks from within to find full-time jobs once they complete their certifications. It is a simple case of opening the door to many women who were rendered invisible by typical recruitment structures. Although challenged by scale, the value of this approach is evident by the massive growth in the number of NPower graduates who get hired after program completion and, in turn, can act as referees for women like them. For Candice and NPower graduates, this direct intervention and partnership approach solves a problem that has hamstrung generations of women of color. In the ethos of Mae Johnson, we can’t wait for change, we have to create it!
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