Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

The 26%: Detroit Water Project Co-Founder on the Challenges Black Women Face in Tech (Video)

What if you’re the only woman in the room -- and the only person of color, too?

Vjeran Pavic / Re/code

Women make up only an estimated 26 percent of the U.S. tech workforce, but if you apply the additional filter of race, that figure can fall from underrepresented territory to barely detectable.

At tech giants like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Intel, the portion of women workers who identify as black or African American is just 1 percent, according to recent Equal Employment Opportunity reports filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. The percentage of Hispanic women is roughly the same.

And that’s just the rank and file. When it comes to executive leadership in major tech companies, those numbers often drop to zero.

To date, Re/code’s series, “The 26%: Women Speak Out on Tech’s Diversity Crisis,” has explored the many challenges workers may face when they’re often the only women in the room. But what if they’re the only person of color as well?

Tiffani Ashley Bell has experienced this first hand during a 10-year career in tech. The former Code for America fellow is now the co-founder and executive director of the Detroit Water Project, an online service that matches donors with households at risk of having their water shut off. As of May, the project helped raise more than $180,000 for some 900 families.

For the fourth episode of “The 26%,” we invited Bell to meet with Nma Mbeledogu, a member of The National Society of Black Engineers who recently began her freshman year at Scripps College.

During the conversation at The Interval at Long Now in San Francisco, they discussed what it’s like to be a black woman in tech, how the industry can be more supportive and what female minorities can do to improve their own odds of success in a field dominated by white men. You can watch the discussion in the video above.

Read all the stories in “The 26%” series:

[display-posts tag=”26percent” posts_per_page=”20”]

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh