Qualified women of color in tech are hard to find that is a common statement and major issue. Why is that to qualified women of color in tech exist? I'm a former computer programmer consultant and C ce, I've programmed multimillion dollar systems for major corporations.I'm also a woman of color. If you hadn't noticed as I progressed in my tech career, my two decade tech career, I was often the only woman of color in rooms on projects. And in the tech department in 1989 I attended the university to study computer science. At that time, there was a small number of universities that actually offered a degree in computer science. Now, that's not to be confused with computer information systems. According to computer science.org. In 1984 women who earned computer science degrees peaked at 37% but has been on the decline ever since. At that time, black women who held computer science degrees was less than 8%. I didn't know any women in tech, especially not women of color. I want it to be part of the elite few. I soon realized that women of color and tech were elite because they were overlooked and causing many of them to leave the technology profession in my career. I've been underpaid, overlooked for promotions and experienced racism. I never imagined nearly 30 years later, women of color and tech will be experiencing these same obstacles. Now, I can in no way speak in depth on all the obstacles that women of color and tech face.

But it's my hope that by the end of my talk, you will want understand the biases that women of color and tech face. Two commit to hiring women of color and tech and three learn how to hire, promote and retain women of color and tech. Today, the world is focusing on becoming diverse and inclusive. It's troubling that in a day and age of artificial intelligence, augmented reality and other technical advances that women of color are a small percentage of the profession. According to statist.com, in 2020 women of color who earned, who accounted for approximately 12% of the computing and mathematical workforce in the United States of the women that are in tech, they're often overlooked. So who are considered the women of color in the tech industry, women of color are the underrepresented minorities. Now, underrepresentation varies across the computing context for this talk. I'm focusing on Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx Native American or Alaskan native women as the underrepresented across the tech pipeline companies say we can't find a qualified woman of color in tech or they say we're trying the truth of the matter is companies are looking with blinders on, they go to elite schools to recruit the same demographic of candidates who they always have or they overlook women of color who had entered the interview process because she failed to exceed the stated requirements for the job.

It was January of 2000. I interviewed for a computer analyst position with one of the United States largest utility companies. At that time, I had about 10 years of experience. The interview was going well as I confidently answered the questions being thrown at me by the two white gentlemen in the room, I was able to showcase my technical knowledge and I felt really good. But at the conclusion of that interview, one of the gentlemen who would become my manager stated that he would have to verify that the university that I attended was accredited because he hadn't heard of it. That shocked me and gave me pause. I never had anyone before or after him say such a thing to me. At least not to my face. I admitted immediately began to wonder why would he think the school that I attended wasn't accredited? Did this man know of every university that exists? Did he question the degree accreditation of every applicant or mine? Because I was a woman of color who hadn't attended an elite university, but instead an H BC U. And for those of you who don't know, H BC U stands for Historically Black College and University. What gave me pause was thinking about not being hired for a position because the interviewing person hadn't heard of my university. Therefore, deeming me unqualified for the position. I then began to wonder, had that happened to me before?

Have you or someone, you know, dismissed a woman of color candidate because she didn't fit inside your box of standards. Unfair hiring practices are one form of bias that women of color and tech face according to built in.com Black and Hispanic women who majored in computer science or engineering are less likely to be higher than their white counterparts. 3% of the computer related jobs are held by African American women. 2% are held by Latino women. And after some exhaustive research, I found that 0.1% are held by Native American women. Interesting enough, I couldn't find any statistics on Alaskan native women in tech that truly emphasized how women of color are overlooked because there are Alaskan native women in tech, women of color and tech are intimidating to their male counterparts, which results in being ignored.

We attend meetings and are made to feel like we don't belong. Our input isn't valued and we aren't given assistance when we seek out help if you are a woman of color and tech. Can you recall a time when you were overlooked when I began working with the utility company? The second gentleman in the interview, ended up being my coworker. We were both to support one of the major systems in the company. He was supposed to mentor and train me. Despite me sitting right next to him, he refused to mentor or train me. He barely answered any of my questions and he always gave me that you are an idiot look of irritation. He made it very clear that he would not train me so that I could take the job that he had coveted for years. It was very frustrating, working with someone who didn't want me around. I felt like I was being set up for failure. I remember going into my manager's office crying telling him how I wanted to do a good job, but it was very difficult when the person that was supposed to be my trainer didn't wanna train me. My manager told me to suck it up because that's how my coworker was. I was dismissed. That is an example of the lack of support and mentorship that women of color and tech face within the white male dominated tech profession.

During my career, I taught myself everything I needed to know to be successful. I bought books to keep my coding skills up. I financially invested in new technology courses so that I may enhance my career in my position with the utility company, I would receive 1 a.m. phone calls. When the system had issues, I will work to resolve those issues at home or by going into the office in the early morning hours if I needed to, I would ensure that all systems would run on schedule. Women of color and tech put their all in what they do, but they feel like I did that value. We often ask ourselves, do I really belong here? When you are a woman of color and tech, you are well aware that you have to be smarter and work harder. Not only will you face gender bias, but also racial bias. You work hard because you're ambitious and you wanna enhance your career as you continue to show up and work hard. You realize that you're underpaid. When asking for a raise, you're given every excuse in the book, why you will not receive one even being told your performance is lacking and to work harder.

Then you're given a false sense of hope and told that maybe next year a raise will be considered unfair pay practices for women of color and tech are blatant. According to a report from the hired from the tech job platform, hired for every dollar a white man in tech earned in 2020 a black and Latino woman in the same role made 90 cents. We are all familiar with the term glass ceiling. Now, the glass ceiling is a barrier to your success, to career success. You can, it's the barrier that you encounter as you're climbing the career ladder. You can look through it and you can see what's possible. But did you know there's also a concrete ceiling and similar to the glass ceiling, the concrete ceiling exists but for women of color is the women of color barrier. Now, imagine climbing the career ladder and hitting a point that you can't see through, you can't push and you can't shatter. You soon realize that there is no possibility for your advancement. This type of discrimination is what women of color in tech face when they aren't given the necessary tools, training and opportunities that will allow them to advance and be as competitive as their white counterparts.

The concrete ceiling in the workplace along with lack of role models, mentors and lack of representation is what women of color have to endure on a daily basis. We start to doubt ourselves and then we start to believe that the heartache just is worth it. So we end up taking our skills and expertise to friendlier industries like accounting and marketing. Women of color and tech are tired of the microaggressions, the unconscious bias and the lack of representation. So how can this all change start with the recruiting process? In addition to the usual places that employers go to recruit employers must also look at H BC US Hispanic serving institutions and other institutions that they normally would not have even considered, then they have to actually be sincere and look for people who don't fit inside that box that they're used to qualified women of color and tech do exist.

So don't just say you're trying actually do hire a woman of color intake and invest in her so that you can not only fulfill a quota but that you can retain her. Make her growth and success a priority. Seek to create diverse mentors, sponsors and role models who want to be part of the solution, provide training opportunities that will allow her to network, develop and advance her career. Create a career path for women of color and tech who want to be in leadership so that they can grow and thrive. Most importantly, create pay equality. If you are currently a woman of color in tech or even if you are a non woman of color and tech, look around your work environment. Don't just be glad that you have your posses your position, mentor and support women of color intent. Let your company know of qualified women of color and tech that will be a good fit. Companies that are diverse, perform better and have engaged employees develop leaders in a workplace that have zero tolerance for implicit or explicit bias and racism. You will find that when you hire and invest in a woman of color and tech, you will have an employee who is loyal and who performs her best.

She will also seek out other qualified women of color and tech that can add value to your organization, women of color, add a diverse perspective that will not only add value to your organization but also foster innovation, our life experiences and unique worldviews allow us to solve problems.

If you truly want to see a diverse and inclusive workforce in tech, allow women of color to show up as their full authentic selves. Open your mind to see the benefits that women of color and take can bring when they're not overlooked. I challenge you to take the blinders off and release the negative stereotypes that you have about women of color. And te I assure you that if she isn't overlooked, her skills, her intellect and her presence will let you know that she's capable and qualified to do the job. I'm Trina L Martin. I am the queen of equality of tech and the CEO of Trina L Martin International. I hope you enjoyed this talk. I'm glad to connect with you on linkedin or you can scan the QR code. If you are a company looking to hire, promote and retain a woman of color and tech. I look forward to speaking with you. I would like to thank the women tech network for allowing me this opportunity. I welcome your questions. Great. I'm glad you guys liked it. Please connect with me feel please do feel free to connect with me. I I would like to connect with everyone here and definitely go out and support a, a woman in color and tag this is my passion. This is something that I, I speak about because I actually lived and I really want, if you go to linkedin and you look at, look for Trina L Martin, it'll say Trina L Martin NBA. That's me. Um Please feel free to connect with me.

Um Reach out to me if you have companies that you guys want to learn how to be uh more diverse and inclusive. Please reach out to me. I'm happy to uh speak with you. OK. So uh there's a question, uh Katie, how do I stay motivated when I run up against the wall? You know, that's a very good question. Sometimes it's hard to do. I'm gonna be honest with you, but I have to remember the bigger purpose and that is for me to do my job. I look back now and I realized that I was in those positions. Um Not for me but to bring me here to where I am today to actually advocate for women of color and tech. So I try to keep myself motivated. I try to pray and I try to stay resilient and be strong because I think about the little girls out there who uh may not have seen or had it modeled for them, the possibilities that they have. And I wanna be that person that they see that looks like them, that gives them that hope. Who do we bridge the gap in? Who do we bridge this gap in your corporation.

Um, if you're talking about my, uh, business personally, Monique, you could reach out directly to me. Um, and I can help, help you or speak with you or do training if that's what you're referring to. Um, what else? Do you, any other question? Uh, really? Yeah, I'm really glad you guys showed up. Um, I love speaking about this topic because it's, it's necessary. Like I said, I never realized that 30 years later, we would be stating the same obstacles in the same small percentages. But, uh I think it's possible that for our daughters and for those coming after us, I think we can make the tech space more diverse for them as a white woman. How can you be a better ally? Well, Katie, um support if you know of there, there's a qualified woman of color and tech that, you know, and recommend her even if she doesn't work at your company, recommend her in a position or mentor train her. Um if you have positions open and she know, you know, she's qualified and she's looking go forth be that person who opened the door for her. And I'm not saying that you're giving her a job, but go go before her and just speak good on her behalf and say, I know this person, if you just wanna be an ally, seek out those people in your company that you see that are hard charging that are really dedicated and wanna work but may not be getting the recognition or being heard like they should and then step in and, and help them.

Yeah, I agree. At least. So, there is no reason that in 2022 black women, Latino women should be a small percentage in the tech industry or not getting paid, equal uh equal pay. No woman should be getting less than what the male counterparts are. But it's really, it's really troubling that women of color um have those statistics that, that um I talked about. Yes, microaggressions are real. Yeah. Yeah. I'm seeing some, I, I see that this resonated with a lot of people. I see people saying that, you know, women of color.

Yeah, we are unique. That's true. We're not unicorns. Uh There's someone out there who also said they are the only African American women of color in their company. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, that's why I'm here because it is, it's such a necessary conversation and no one had been talking about it. And this is I call it my, my, my call my duty, my destiny for me to do this because it's something that I'm very passionate about. I see some H BC U graduates in the house. Yes. Yes, thank you. Uh So Alisa, also, your professional goal is to build a pipeline uh of biopic women as well as the pipeline for trained allies. Yes. And please connect with me on linkedin. I definitely would love to be part of what you're doing. Uh, let's see anyone else. I'm gonna make sure I didn't miss anything. Um, how do you handle hostility at your job? Ok. That's, uh, from Katie again. That is something that is, it's very difficult and what I've learned, especially because I retired from the Navy. I was a naval officer, so I did 30 years in the navy. What I do is I keep a journal whenever I would encounter things. That's kind of your best defense is to just document everything, dates time, who was present, what was said? Because eventually if you have to take it to hr you have documentation, it's very, it's very difficult to fight City Hall without proof. So always just have your proof together.

Um Of course, you don't want to um as to exacerbate the situation, but you also don't want people to think that you're weak and that they can walk all over you. So I, I'm not that person, I'm not the weak person. I always have spoken up for myself even as a child. And I know that's frowned upon, especially in uh an industry like tech because one women are, you know, they don't want us there anyway. But then being a woman and a woman of color on top of it, a lot of times that's not received well, and I've been on the end of saying, oh, she's angry, she's aggressive. No, I'm not angry. No, I'm not aggressive, but I am gonna let you know my thoughts. I'm gonna let you know my opinions and if you don't like that, then I hate that. You think that I'm angry or aggression, uh, aggressive. Uh, anything else? I, I know. Let's see. Um, I think I'm a little bit over time but if you guys still have more questions, I'm, I'm here to answer them anymore. Such a great turnout. I, I really wanna thank you for listening to my talk and, and your great questions and your great feedback. Um It's, it's very important and it's very important to me that you guys have responded with your feedback because that lets me know that I am on the right journey in my life and advocating for what I advocate for.

So, um I wanna thank you for attending and Katie, I'm also a Chicagoan. I was born and raised in Chicago. So just to let you know, OK, well, again, thank you guys for attending and uh please connect with me on linkedin and I'll see you around at the rest of the conference.