In February of 2020, Women & Hi Tech hosted a special edition of Executive Women’s Forum: A Double Whammy or Triple Threat: The Disparity of Diversity Amongst Women in STEM, an interactive forum which featured diverse female leaders in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation/Intellectual Property to discuss the disparity of diversity and privilege that may exist amongst women in STEM.
Recent events have exposed deep inequalities in the United States. Not that may exist, but that do exist. The injustices Black Americans face every day have forced a spotlight on systemic racism in our country, in our boardrooms, and Zoom rooms. This important and critical conversation continues from February to our Executive Women’s Forum October 27: Flipping the Script on Racism and Women in STEM – the Journey to Equity. Please join us for this event hosted by Women & Hi Tech, hear stories from three black women working in STEM, representation of STEM statistics and facts, and get an action plan on what you can do to flip the script on racism in your conference rooms and neighborhoods.
The field of STEM has a racism problem.
- Despite an increase in the number of women receiving computer science degrees over the past two decades, computer sciences has one of the lowest shares of women degree recipients among the broad fields of Science & Engineering – National Science Foundation
- In 2016 alone, Black women earned more than 33,000 bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering, and 24 percent of doctorates awarded to Black women were in STEM. But that same report showed that in 2017, only 5 percent of managerial jobs in STEM were held by Black women and men combined. – National Science Foundation
- While there has been significant progress for women in the life and physical sciences since 1990, the share of women has been roughly stable in other STEM occupational clusters and has actually gone down 7 percentage points in the area with the largest job growth over this period: computer occupations, a job cluster that includes computer scientists, systems analysts, software developers, information systems managers and programmers. – Pew Social Trends
- Black and Hispanic workers continue to be underrepresented in the STEM workforce. Blacks make up 11% of the U.S. workforce overall but represent 9% of STEM workers, while Hispanics comprise 16% of the U.S. workforce but only 7% of all STEM workers. And among employed adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher, blacks are just 7% and Hispanics are 6% of the STEM workforce.- Pew Social Trends
- Black STEM employees are especially likely to say they have experienced discrimination at work – in a current or previous job; 62% of blacks in STEM say this compared with 44% of Asians and 42% of Hispanics in STEM jobs. – Pew Social Trends
- 49% of Black women feel that their race or ethnicity will make it harder for them to get a raise, promotion, or chance to get ahead, compared to just 3% of white women and 11% of women overall. - LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2019, unpublished data.
Our moderator for the event is Nichelle Whitney, Senior Assistant Director for Diversity Recruitment and Outreach, IU Bloomington, and CEO of The Guarden LLC. Founded by Nichelle Whitney, The Guarden offers diversity education training for institutions, corporations, and organizations of all sizes. The education is approached from a lens of grace and reaching for the highest point of unity, so workshops usually include opportunities for introspection and centers on helping individuals reach for reconciliation rather than resentment. In addition to diversity and inclusion workshops, Nichelle chairs the Monroe County Women's Commission, serves with the Community Foundation of Bloomington & Monroe County Board of Directors as a Fellow, and chairs the Inclusion, Access, and Success Committee for the state of Indiana. LinkedIn Profile
Registration for this EWF is required in order to provide you with the final login instructions, but is free for all who want to participate, Women & Hi Tech members and non-members. A login/password will be sent to the email address entered for this registration. The login/password provided in that email will be required to enter the Webinar on October 27, 2020.
Agenda:
11:30 am-11:45 am EST Welcome and Introductions
11:45 am -1:00 pm EST Panel Discussion
**By registering for this event, you acknowledge that you may be photographed, videotaped, and/or audio-taped during the course of this event and hereby give permission for your image, and/or voice to be used in education, training, promotion, advertisement, and/or trade and communications media by Women & Hi Tech in any and all media outlets throughout the world, without restriction as to frequency or duration of usage.**
***PLEASE NOTE: W & HT event registration, including any and all associated registration fee(s), is non-refundable and non-transferable. ***
