The Lack of Minority Women in Tech isn't Just Bad for the Industry, It's Bad for the World
L’Officiel | 08.30.2021 by Hillary Kang
Ayesha Khanna, CEO of an artificial intelligence company, and Nurin Qistina, an aspiring information systems undergraduate, discuss how the dearth of women in tech affects the world at large.
Women still have issues getting into the tech world: To say nothing of how they are treated once they enter it. In 2020, a report found that male candidates were offered higher salaries than their female counterparts for the same role — at the same company — a troubling 59 percent of the time. The statistics are grim, especially for young women aspiring to break into the industry.
IT undergraduate Nurin Qistina is one of them. Not only does she have reservations about the number of women in tech, she’s noticed the lack of minority women in the scene as well: “I think it’s ironic that something meant to advance society is so backwards — at least in terms of representation,” she says.
It’s a struggle that Ayesha Khanna is intimately familiar with. The CEO and co-founder of ADDO AI — an artificial intelligence advisory firm — Khanna has seen first hand just how that discrimination plays out in the workplace — and how it reflects in the products that the industry puts out.
“The number of women in tech might be going up, but the discrimination is still there; it’s sometimes passive aggressive,” she says. “Like, ‘Yeah, she’s good, but can she really handle the pressure of tech?’”
It’s part of the reason Khanna founded 21st Century Girls, a charity that teaches coding and AI skills to girls in Singapore. Khanna says it’s imperative that girls are taught these skills even if they have no intention of getting into tech — so that they don’t get left behind in a rapidly digitising world.
On Qistina’s part, she’s joined initiatives like The Codette Project, a mentorship initiative that aims to empower minority women in tech. “My mentors definitely helped me to be sure of what I wanted to do,” she says. “And I think, just knowing that people like who looked like me in the industry is good — because then I know it’s possible for me to go in there.”
Given that we’re seeing more women enter the tech world, do you think representation still remains a pressing issue?
Ayesha Khanna: Even if there is now this belief that women can be academically good, there is this sneaking suspicion that they can’t handle the pressure, that they can’t handle the work hours, the grit and the grind of being software engineers, and machine learning engineers, and data architects. I feel that there is a slight discrimination that still exists, and what this does is it discourages girls. And this makes them lose confidence, and then it becomes entrenched.
Nurin Qistina: When I was in Singapore Polytechnic, half the people in my IT course were women — so about 30 women. And out of that number, only 4 were minority women. I didn’t think much of it then. When I entered university, there were even more women — but at the same time, even less minority women.
How have you seen that imbalance — in terms of gender and minority cultures in tech — play out?
AK: Bias is very common in products that are driven by AI — especially if the data is not balanced. For example in Amazon, a HR AI system was constantly rejecting women over men. Everybody was like, “The machine is so smart, it must know what it’s doing.” But that’s not true: It was picking men because the data it was based on was biased — it was copying a male manager, who would historically only pick men for such roles. When they realised that, they got rid of the system, but it does take a diverse team to recognise things like that.
NQ: There’s also this really famous case on Google Photos from 2015, where the algorithm would classify African American people as gorillas. Or algorithms that say an Asian’s eyes are closed — when they’re actually open. Once I was at an airport where they did facial recognition for check-ins, but the system just couldn’t detect my face because I was wearing a headscarf.
AK: Diversity in tech isn’t just to prevent bias, it’s good business sense. A diverse team builds a product that more people can use. Having women in your teams can help, because they can tailor the products and they can make sure the personalisation and data and analytics is truly representative of the bigger community, and emerging middle class — especially the growth markets, where women are getting more buying power.
Tech skills are necessary to have that confidence — not so that you become a coder, but so that when someone is talking about it, you aren’t afraid. It’s like saying, “I’m not gonna be a novelist, why do we read?” Because you’re gonna need it here and there. It’s a general skill to traverse the new economy, and to play any role.
It’s not only for girls to be better accepted in the tech world, it’s for all girls to just be more confident in the world — to not be afraid and think that a machine, or someone who knows about tech and data, is smarter than them.
The number of women in tech is gradually increasing. If that is less of an issue today, what are the challenges that women in tech are now facing?
AK: In the past, women just needed to think about the tech itself. But now the tech isn’t everything. It’s not enough for you to just get your engineering degree — you have to push yourself more, because guess what? The code can literally write itself; AI is writing other AI now.
So you need to then keep going up the value chain. This is just the beginning for a woman in tech, she needs to elevate herself. It’s about business skills. Don’t just say: “Just give me the requirements.” Speak up, say: “Hey, I think that’s not a good strategy” if it isn’t. And people may look at you and say that it’s not your place. But that’s where you tell them — “You know what? This is my place.”
The big question: Why is it so important to advocate for more women — from different cultures, and backgrounds — to be in tech?
NQ: For me, I had a lot of good female role models in my life. In secondary school, my design and technology teacher was a Malay woman — she was a female engineer, which was quite rare. A lot of my teachers in poly and university lecturers were women. I’ve had internships in women-led tech firms. They definitely helped me to be sure of what I wanted to do.
Just knowing that there were people who looked like me in the industry was great — because then I knew it’s also possible for me to do that too.
