“Why Diversity Matters in Tech Innovation,” an upcoming virtual program at the Longmont Public Library, will address how everyday technology is improved by a diverse research team.
Wendy DuBow, a senior research scientist and director of evaluation at the National Center for Women and Information Technology, or NCWIT, will provide a lecture through Cisco Webex video conferencing on Wednesday. NCWIT, a nonprofit based at the University of Colorado Boulder, works toward meaningful participation of women at the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, age, sexual orientation and disability status.
There’s still a lack of inclusion of women in the tech world, DuBow said. According to a NCWIT study, women make up a quarter of computing jobs in the U.S., with figures pulling on 2019 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Women also mostly filled roles in computing subfields rather than core technical roles. In 2019, 43% of women in the field worked as operations research analysts, whereas computer software engineers and computer programmers hovered around 20% each.
“It's a very homogenous world still especially when it comes to the creators and inventors,” DuBow said. “I think it's starting to shift, but it's a really slow shift, right? And especially when we think about diversity from a number of different intersections, you know with race and ethnicity, as well as gender and sexual orientation, and all of that. Then you see how, what a narrow slice is actually inventing our tech currently.”
Without diversity in tech invention, technology success can be impacted, according to DuBow. She will cover everyday tools including voice recognition, facial recognition, and wearable heart rate trackers. DuBow also will cover how errors in skin tone recognition factor into if an automatic soap dispenser works for the user. She said she hopes program participants will be more aware of how diversity in technology, and other industries, impacts their lives.
“What I hope they get is just greater awareness about the real-world impacts of a lack of diversity, so that people come away feeling more committed to increasing diversity and proportional representation in all fields. Even if they're not particularly going to go off and do something about technology, if they'll do it in some other fields, then I would be really happy,” DuBow said.
Teresa Myers, marketing coordinator for the library, said “Why Diversity Matters in Tech Innovation” is scheduled for an hour starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday but will run longer if needed for questions. Registration is required and is limited to 100 tickets. Free registration is available through Eventbrite.
