70 D
iversity in STE A M www.diversityinsteam.com
Supplier Diversity
70 D
iversity in STE A M www.diversityinsteam.com
C
reating and sustaining more diversity in the science, technology, engineer- ing, arts and mathematics fields has been an ongoing movement for decades. Each industry has had to field its own unique struggles and pitfalls to reach where they are now as activists and organizations are still fighting for a better future. Women, especially, have been a force to be reckoned with on the path to parity. Diversity in STEAM Magazine had the opportunity to interview the President and CEO of AnitaB.org, a global nonprofit whose mission is to recruit, retain and advance women in the field of technology, to find out what companies and candidates should know when it comes to the current and future status of women in the tech industry. Diversity in STEAM: What originally brought you to AnitaB.org? What personal and professional impact did the organization have on you as a member and what are your goals as president and CEO? Brenda Darden: I came over to AnitaB.org from launching the Computer Science for All initiative, which was a call to push more diverse people into the pipeline where companies have complained that there were not enough diverse people. Now, I didn't do it for the tech companies. I did it because I believe that tech needs to be created by folks who look like the people who are going to use it or be impacted by it. But having worked in tech, I knew that even though there were going to be people with a background and the qualifications, the barrier for them to get into tech would still exist. I wanted to be a change agent. So, personallyI didn't quite know what the organization was. I had been to one Grace Hopper Celebration, and so, like so many people, I thought of the organiza- ion as the Grace Hopper organization. I wasn't aware of what AnitaB.org did overall. But the impact it had on me from having attended that one celebration was incredi- ble. At that point, there were 8,500 people at the event. Just the physicality of being
TAKING HER PLACE:
A Conversation About Women in Tech
By Tawanah Reeves-Ligon
CHUCK OLU-ALABI
Brenda Darden, President and CEO of AnitaB.org
around that many tech women gave a physical reality to what I knew was true. Many in the tech industry like to say, There aren't very many of us. But, suddenly, at a Grace Hopper Cel- ebration, you look around and there are women from all over the world. I felt more emboldened and knew I could do more - and better! Now, my goal as President of AnitaB.org is to outsize that impact. My first goal was to broaden the tent - to make sure Anit- aB.org members looked like the women of the world. Ethnicity, identity, age - to have all of it represented. There were some that were younger and some that were older that were not under the tent. And, then there's the pathway. I talk about pathway versus pipeline because
Previous Page