The importance of representartion in tech
Having more varierty and diversity within tech is crucial to being able to achieve more equality in society.
Cristina Lago says it very well "The main issue with diversity reports and representation statistics is that they only present a superficial picture of a complex situation. They don’t address the underlying structural racism and inequalities preventing black candidates from reaching top positions or simply retaining a good job in tech."
Learn more about black representartion in tech here
Unless the leadership of organisations take a firm stance to eradicate racism and make a case for real diversity, equity , and inclusion, improving the numbers of black employees alone seems a futile effort that can only take a toll on black people’s well-being and mental health.
It is not only racism that is an issue when looking at representation in the tech insdustry. Representation of all types of people and perspectives are needed in order to reflect the population of the world we live in. If one actively, and/or unintentionally, inhibits certain people from being included and hired you miss out on great resources and the consequences can be enormous.
Having diversity in how your teams think and solve problems yields higher success. Better representation of marginalized groups is crucial in coming up with the right solutions to challenges, creative thinking and overall customer success. When team members are too alike, things can get missed or overlooked.
Studies show that AI are lacking in responding to questions related to primarily female or minority issues. You see results showing that Siri and Alexa are assigned female gender as an assisting unit in the home, and thus reinforcing the gendered stereotypes. As well as their responses to sexual harassment is in many cases disturbing, an example being “I’m going to blush” when asked to “suck my dick”. You also see lacking responses when asked about rape, sexual assaults or violence – issues primarily affect women and marginalized people.
When you then know that women are grossly underrepresented in artificial intelligence, making up 12 percent of A.I. researchers and 6 percent of software developers in the field, it starts to paint a picture. The picture shows a gross neglect of the importance of including female perspectives into development of technology and when trying to find solutions to imperative issues of our time.
As Allison Gardner, a co-founder of Women Leading in A.I, said - “It’s not always malicious bias, it’s unconscious bias, and lack of awareness that this unconscious bias exists, so it’s perpetuated,”. We know that it is not intentional, but that does not mean that the result is acceptable. Therefore, it is imperative that the developers that write code and find new technologies reflect the people it is creating things for.