Companies that believe they can deliver great products to a diverse set of customers, without having a diverse group of employees creating and bringing these products to market, are in denial. However, not enough young people, especially girls of color, view technology as a realistic career path. Our industry must band together to spur change. The Reboot Representation Tech Coalition is a huge step forward for our industry, and Adobe is excited to get started. Our products and society will be better for it.
BLACK, LATINA, AND
NATIVE WOMEN IN THE
TECH SECTOR
In the tech sector, companies are looking for ways to build inclusive teams. The 2018 Rebooting Representation report
has actionable recommendations to help tech companies close the race and gender gap.
The Reboot Representation Tech Coalition
The report has informed a coalition of leading companies, the Reboot Representation Tech Coalition, committed to doubling the number of Black, Latinas, and Native American women graduating with computing degrees by 2025.
The Reboot Representation Tech Coalition administration is supported by Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company started by Melinda French Gates.
The Coalition is already taking action to close the gender gap for Black, Latina, and Native American women in tech.
Women today are chronically underrepresented at every stage of the tech journey.
Women of color experience the greatest barriers and are especially underrepresented.
Black, Latinas, and Native American women make up only 4% of computing degree recipients and the current tech workforce. If we do nothing, the number of women of color receiving computing degrees won’t double over today’s numbers until 2052.
The lack of representation carries a major cost for women, companies, and the entire sector.
Demand for workers with tech skills will grow by as much as 90% over the next 15 years, and business leaders are projecting a shortfall within the next three years. The sector must figure out how to keep pace or pay a high cost.
Tech has a pivotal opportunity to transform the sector.
While companies have made internal investments in diversity to date, they have yet to fully leverage their philanthropic and corporate social responsibility investments to increase the number of women receiving computing degrees.
Tech companies can use resources from the report to act now to better reflect our society.
What Coalition Members Are Saying
Best Buy celebrates and works hard to foster diversity within our business. We are striving to do the same in the communities in which we work and live, most notably through our commitment to, by the end of 2020, provide more than one million underserved teens a year with tech-oriented training. It is an honor to now broaden this focus by joining the Reboot Representation Tech Coalition and, under the leadership of Melinda French Gates, work to double by 2025 the number of women of color graduating with computer science degrees.
Women of color represent a huge, largely untapped opportunity for the tech industry and for companies like ours that rely heavily on technology. To change that, we need to work together and take bold action. BNY Mellon is pleased to align with these leading Coalition members to increase the representation of women of color in technology and believe this effort will jumpstart that change.
Technology continues to transform our world in unprecedented ways. Now more than ever, it’s imperative that we have diverse perspectives helping to shape our collective future, and that means as an industry we have a responsibility to address skills gaps and break down barriers to participation.
Industry-wide problems require industry-wide solutions. We are looking forward to working alongside Melinda French Gates and other Coalition partners to achieve our goal of creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace. Encouraging more women and particularly women of color to pursue careers in STEM fields requires coordinated collaboration and a shared strategy with our peers. We look forward to working together to address the system’s issues head on.
One of the fundamental challenges of the tech sector is to increase opportunities for women in tech. As a founding member of Melinda French Gates’ Reboot Representation Tech Coalition, we view the doubling of the number of women in tech as imperative to our own success as a company. Ultimately we can only succeed if we have people of all backgrounds represented in our engineering ranks.
At Riot, we prioritize education, opportunity, and citizenship as the levers we believe will propel humanity forward. The partnership with the Reboot Representation Tech Coalition, along with the leadership of Melinda French Gates, was a clear opportunity for us to partner on all of these fronts to set bold goals, collaborate, and unlock our potential for a more vibrant and inclusive future for all. We’re thrilled to join the Coalition as a Founding Member to support this important work.
At Salesforce.org, we are committed to empowering a diverse workforce with the skills needed for the tech jobs of today and tomorrow. We believe businesses have a responsibility to ensure nobody is left behind and are proud to join other leaders to increase representation of women of color in technology.
Innovation is born from a diversity of ideas, perspectives, and experiences. At Norton Life Lock, we recognize our inherent responsibility to further invest in gender equity and access to opportunity for all women. We are very proud to stand with the Reboot Representation Tech Coalition to close the gender gap for women of color.
Diversity, in all its forms, is critical to the future of technology and innovation. The fresh ideas and perspectives we need to address the world’s biggest challenges will come only when the technology industry reflects the society it serves. This effort requires collaboration and partnership from all sectors. Oath is proud to partner with Pivotal Ventures and the National Center For Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), to be part of this coalition focusing on doubling the number of Black, Latina, and Native American women graduating with computing degrees by 2025.