Diversity in the IT Workplace Sucks

I have been active with BDPA for many years. BDPA is an association made up of IT professionals of African descent. As such I was disappointed to learn that the diversity within the IT industry over the last decade has not improved.

In fact, for most of us diversity statistics lag far behind the rest of the US workforce. African Americans represent only 6.5 percent of IT management and staff, as compared to 11 percent of all other industry management and staff professionals.

The percentage of African Americans in IT managerial and staff positions dropped nearly 26 percent over the past six and-a-half years, the percentage of whites increased by 2.3 percent, and employment within IT among Asians increased by more than 17 percent.

I took little comfort in the fact that whites are also under represented in the IT industry, with 75.2 percent of all IT employees being white while 82.1 percent of all other managers and staff professionals are white.

Asians currently hold 16.3 percent of IT jobs but only 4.6 percent of managerial positions in other professions.

Gina Billings is a friend and colleague. She is also the current National BDPA president. She believes that globalization, and the outsourcing of IT jobs, is to blame for the low percentage of African Americans in the IT industry. Billings argues that because many African Americans entered the industry later than their white counterparts, they were the first to get fired when jobs started moving oversees, and that negative experience has caused a ripple effect.

A study by Global Lead Management Consulting for the Information Technology Senior Management Forum indicates that many African Americans are now leaving the IT industry voluntarily. Of the survey respondents, all of which were employed African American IT professionals, 56 percent considered leaving their jobs in the previous 12 months. Nearly all of the respondents said they felt comfortable working with diverse peers, but fewer than half said they trusted their peers.
That is deep. It is rough to work in an environment where you don't trust your colleagues.

Anyhow, BDPA and ITSMF are coming together in a few weeks at a conference being held in Washington DC on August 15-18, 2007. I anticipate that this issue of poor employment results in the IT industry will be a topic of both formal and informal discussions. Perhaps I will see you there.