Indigenous Women in Tech
The tech industry in Saskatchewan is booming and there is a need for more employees to cover the demand. So why are we seeing a continued lack of involvement from Indigenous women? Ethical Digital studied it - here are the results.
The Indigenous Women in Tech Research Project
We (Ethical Digital) believe that if technology is the future, all different groups should be involved in creating that future. Saskatchewan has a very welcoming and growing tech secretary (we are the fastest growing tech sector in Canada next to Waterloo!), but there are very few people who identify as being Indigenous in the industry. Only 2.2% of the Canadian tech workforce is Indigenous, and even fewer of those are women.
We received a grant from Women and Gender Equality Canada to study what the barriers were for Indigenous Women entering into the sector. This led to the Indigenous Women in Tech research project.
Why Aren’t Indigenous Women Working in Tech?
We interviewed 123 Indigenous women on and off reserve and learned that although many of them were comfortable with using technology, many Indigenous women are not entering into careers in technology due to:
Lack of funding for skills training
Many women do not want to leave their communities
They feel that they need more training
Family and childcare obligations keep them from entering the profession
There was an interesting surprise that came out of this research. We thought that “if you can’t see it, you won’t be it” was a factor. But we learned that many of the women we interviewed know people who work in the industry, so that didn’t seem to be a factor in joining the profession.
What’s Next for the IWT Project?
There are many groups working on solving this problem, and we are working this year to create bridges between the technology and Indigenous communities. We will be holding a hack-a-thon with Reconciliation Saskatoon this fall, which is a gathering of people who all get together to solve problems using technology. They are a lot of fun, and we hope we can build some relationships in the industry!
We are also sharing the report with tech accelerators and incubators around Canada so we can see change outside of Saskatchewan too.
Advice for Indigenous Women Entering Tech
Reach out. There are a lot of people who would love to help you on your path to entering into tech. Also, you don’t need to be a developer to be involved in technology. There are many ways to get involved from marketing to bookkeeping to sales!
Let’s change the trajectory of the internet together.