Owning Talent, Identity and Innovation as Latinas
By Sylvia Butanda
Latinitas Magazine
Although there are systemic and societal barriers in the technology industry for women, and Latinas specifically, there are ways to improve their low representation according to speakers during a SXSW panel on March 10th. These solutions include removing bias, creating platforms to showcase Latina champions that belong in the industry and supporting initiatives to have a stronger presence.
The panel speakers included Carolina Casares, Senior Director and Head of Media of Yahoo Latin America & Spain, Claudia Romo Edelman, Special Advisor of UNICEF, and Samira Saba, Communications Director of Smartmatic. The panel was moderated by Kety Esquivel, Senior Vice President of Edelman.
While Latinas make up only one percent of the technology industry in the United States, the women on the panel expressed love for their jobs and are ready to conquer the roles they are prepared for, according Saba from Smartmatic, a company that offers electronic voting technology and services.
The barriers faced by the panelists in their professional journeys are familiar to other Latinas and also the majority of women pursuing careers in the technology field, and include having to address and attempt to dismantle gender bias and racial discrimination.
The percentage of Latinos in tech is so low because there aren’t enough efforts to improve the policies and budgets in place to provide better services to the Latinx communities, explained Romo Edelman, from UNICEF.
“We need to show the tech industry to not be so short sighted,” Edelman said. “Tech companies have to make an effort and we have to get better organized in making ourselves heard. We’re amazingly shy in showing our cards — it’s time to show them,” she said, referring to Latinos speaking up.
As senior leader in Yahoo Latin America and Spain, Casares says that she values diversity and can see that helps her team offer different perspectives and makes for better innovation.
She pointed out that biases must be removed when it comes to capabilities of women. “We have to stop thinking that we’re just going to make it to mid level positions — that’s not true,” Casares said.
The potential to have more Latinas in technology is there, but there must be an effort both from companies and their employees to become allies and engage in conversation to improve representation. And women need to make their case that they do belong in the industry.
“As soon as society accepts that Latinos can develop technology, it’ll be easier to be in that industry,” Saba said. But those beliefs and shifts need to begin with us, “it’s also difficult for us to accept that we can develop technology — we have to believe that.”
Sylvia Butanda is the program director for Latinitas media and technology enrichment non-profit organization in Austin, Texas. Follow her on Twitter at @sylbutanda.
