Investing in Women of Color: CGEST Attends ASU GSV

On April 8, the Women of Color in Computing Collaborative (WOCCC) hosted a learning session at ASU GSV, an annual education and workforce innovation summit bringing together educators, policymakers, and venture capitalists. The session, titled “Investing in Our Future”, was hosted by CGEST Founder and Executive Director Dr. Kimberly Scott, Kapor Center Chief Resource Officer Dr. Allison Scott, and Kapor Center partner Ulili Onovakpuri. It engaged participants in conversation about best practices for enhancing the number of women of color in computing.

Asked what it means to invest in women of color, Dr. Kimberly Scott reflected on the disparities evident in support and funding for women of color-led ventures. “For the purposes of this particular session, an investment starts with knowledge,” she says, “and many individuals, not only those who attended our session, but individuals in general who are venture capitalists -- they want to support an idea that’s going to be successful. But many people do not have the knowledge in terms of how, or to what end. So we ensured that in our presentation, we spent time talking about opportunities -- opportunities by way of, if you invest, or if you don’t invest in women of color, what does that mean to our society, our economy, and our political systems?”

The session further highlighted some of the opportunities that arise when women of color are better represented in tech entrepreneurship. For example, companies with greater racial and gender diversity are associated with greater profitability. Demographic trends indicate that women of color will comprise the majority of the U.S. female population by 2060, and that they already account for 80% of new female-led small businesses. “This is another opportunity to think about who is creating and investing in the technologies of our future,” said Dr. Allison Scott during the session, “and how we’re limiting ourselves if we don’t have enough diversity at the table.”

The session also included discussion on the consequences of excluding women of color in tech and product development. Commercial artificial intelligence technologies remain susceptible to algorithmic bias. Who participates in product development ultimately impacts accuracy. For example, a study by Joy Buolamwini and Timnit Gebru found that facial analysis software sold by IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon were characterized by an error rate of nearly 35 percent for dark-skinned women. The same study discovered an error rate of less than 1 percent for light-skinned men. “AI is only as smart as the data that we provide it with”, Ms. Onovakpuri explained, “and if we provide it with a limited data set, and if there’s limited diversity on the team, it [AI] is going to reflect that.”

Oliver Dean, CGEST’s Communications and Media Relations Coordinator, also attended the event, and reflected on the importance of disseminating these Collaborative efforts through digital and interactive platforms: “The art of capturing collaborations through the lens perspective continues to be a contemporary necessity in society, and we will continue to give voice to the life-changing efforts of the WOCCC.” Sharing the outcomes of the Collaborative’s research and advocacy is central to this partnership’s mission, and allows for greater engagement with individuals across the academic, policy, and entrepreneurship sectors.

“This was a unique opportunity for those of us who have been doing research in this field of disparity, asset-building, and capacity-building, to dialogue with individuals who have the desire as well as the resources to invest in women of color in computing.” Dr. Kimberly Scott says that she looks forward to CGEST attending ASU GSV again in the future, calling it “an important space” for sharing scholarship that may inform decisions about funding and institutional support for women of color in the future.