Diversity is still a hot-button topic in some spaces. It’s 2019 and we still have to occasionally explain to people why their workforce should reflect the demographics of the population. Imagine! And when you do wade into the topic, too often some well-meaning Helen or Josh will acknowledge your efforts with the tone of a benevolent-if-deluded Victorian duchess: “Yes, well, one does what one can …”
Diversity in the workplace — and economic transformation — is not a charity issue, Helen. And tech, in particular, needs to transform: if finance is the original “old [white] boys’ club”, then tech is its feeding pool or perhaps its overachieving little brother, its 21st-century iteration.
According to McKinsey’s research, less than 20% of roles in the technology sector are filled by women. And commission for employment equity data shows that something in the region of seven out of 10 employees at management level in SA are white, despite white people being about 9% of the population.
But at this point, if you’re not on board in the concepts of equality, diversity and privilege, I’ve lost you. And preaching to the proverbial choir, while great for the ego, achieves little. In SA, for all the obvious reasons, the diversity “debate” (it’s not a debate, Helen!) is ubiquitous, which means the point can be lost in the noise.
Sometimes, what is required to see the wood for the trees is a different perspective. I had a timely reminder of this recently. I’m in Austin, Texas, as I write this, a guest at Dell’s technology summit where, at the opening soirée last night, over shrimp on a stick and espresso-rubbed rib eye, I met five members of Resilient Coders — a group tackling diversity and inclusion (or the lack thereof) in Boston’s tech industry.
Resilient’s plan, and I’m quoting from their site here, is to “take a small cohort of young people of colour, without college degrees, and teach them to be javascript developers, so that they may have access to a real high-growth career building software.”
“I don’t need a degree — or that student debt — to be able to code,” one of the group told me, to an emphatic round of nods from the others. The boot camps run by the organisation, as well as ongoing support from volunteers, means giving young students (of colour) the skills the industry needs, giving them a chance to build real-world solutions and tools to demonstrate those skills, mentoring them, and then advocating for them in the industry.
“It’s not IT, or networking. It’s engineering,” they say. Social engineering, I guess.
There are many similar projects to Resilient Coders in SA too, of course, but what struck me is that they are tackling this issue for a minority group in their country.
Technology is, at its core, a solutions-seeking endeavour. That’s why tech is associated so closely with innovation, even though we can innovate outside tech. Innovation using tech solutions gave us co-working, ride-sharing, e-hailing, drone delivery and an alternative to pricey hotels. It gave us 3D printing, one-button coffee and tap to pay.
The Resilient group are here in Austin, having won a challenge where they proposed using blockchain to secure and authenticate patient medical records. Is that a particular challenge for them locally? I have no idea because that is not the context from which I operate.
Diversity in tech is a competitive advantage. It is that in all sectors, but especially in tech. This is because we innovate to solve problems, and we generally solve the problems directly in front of us. That’s why the Josh McJoshersons of the start-up world and tech sector are inherently limited: mostly, they can only see the problems within their sphere of experience. It’s also why we’ve seen apps popping up to solve “problems” like finding someone to do your laundry.
How do you build a solution that has the reach and scale of something like MPesa, with its 37-million active customers? You have to know that cash and money transfer is a pressing issue in a particular place or sphere, and you have to have the cultural context of what realistic and convenient alternatives would be. And then you need the skills to build a solution.
If SA tech companies and start-ups want to have big successes at home, they might want to ensure their workforce reflects that home.
• Thompson Ferreira is a freelance journalist, impactAFRICA fellow and WanaData member.
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