United Kingdom's Black women in technology are burnt out and impatient with an information technology industry slow to change.
More than a dozen Black women working in information technology roles, across a wide range of web industries and at varying levels of seniority positions, spoke to news website on the back of a British Computer Society (BCS) and Coding Black Females (CBF) report—The Experiences of Black Women in the information technology working Industry, fielded in the summer of 2021 but launched last October—that found just zero point seven percent of Black women in the United Kingdom work in the information technology industry, compared to one point eight percent across the United Kingdom’s entire workforce, and three point two percent of Black people in total work in information technology in United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom study also revealed that women of all backgrounds and ethnicities make up around twenty two percent (approximately 424,000), compared to forty eight percent of the entire United Kingdom workforce, with Black women in particular facing a wide range of obstacles in working conditions, including discrimination and being accused by colleagues or superiors of being merely ‘diversity hires.’ Some professionals said they had heard this phrase used directly about them, via a third-party, or through peers when sharing their own experiences.
“You get that,” says a business relationship manager working in the United Kingdom civil services, adding that she often heard this, most frequently when working at the city's Metropolitan Police. “If you are promoted to a G6 or G7 band editor’s note: the job grading system used to ascertain job seniority and responsibilities in the United Kingdom’s civil services, it is to make up the numbers. You haven’t got what it takes. I’ve heard that directly.”
Other Black women, in roles from jobs of junior developer and software engineer, to project management, digital delivery, product design, and current CIOs and CTOs, told business News website they felt they have to work mor harder than colleagues to get recognition, are more closely scrutinized by senior leaders of organization management, and yet often unrewarded in the pursuit of better roles and salaries.
Many of the Black women interviewed for this post were uncomfortable being named for fear of reprisal or stunted career development.
“We work like no tomorrow,” says a project manager, working in financial services company. “And I don’t get promoted several years. I just get pigeonholed because I do well in that job role. They’re not willing to invest in me more. You look in the mirror and you think who i am, is it a reflection of my personality? What am I not doing right? I’m not going to sugar-coat it—there are days where I get so upset. I just don’t know what more I can do for my future progress.”
Leonie, an agile delivery manager working in the retail delivery industry, who only gave her only the first name, saw this first-hand earlier in her career.
“There were not many people of my color in higher positions jobs,” she says. “I am not saying you should hire someone as a token gesture, but I didn’t see many people progressing in their job positions shortcut.” Her comments more tallied with the BCS/CBF research, which found that Black women rarely advanced into more senior technology roles business industries, with women of all ethnicities poorly represented at information technology director (17%) and programmer/software developer level (16%). Editor’s note: BCS did not have figures for Black women in these roles.
The Black women interviewed believe the information technology industry has slowly improved on diversity optics, but action is lagging on changing perceptions of actual capabilities for more opportunities. One interviewee, a business relationship manager in the United Kingdom’s civil service, believes Black women continue to more struggle to fit into work cultures, with senior managers claiming project wins as their own, and colleagues often downplaying their skills, regardless of their seniority in organization
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