Photograph By Shane Van Boxtel/Image Studios
The tech industry has been tough for everyone, but it’s been especially tough on women, who accounted for nearly 70% of tech industry layoffs last year, according to the WomenTech Network.
Natalie Nelson is the new executive director leading the tech charge at Women in Technology Wisconsin, Inc. (WIT), a nonprofit dedicated to attracting, growing and retaining women in technology-related careers — which is more important now than ever. Insight sat down with Nelson to discuss the organization’s growth, how it works to empower women in tech roles across industries and why diversity is essential to any company’s success.
Insight: What has been your career path prior to joining WIT in May?
Nelson: My journey has focused on marketing, digital marketing and marketing technology — that little space between marketing and technology. I’ve worked for Oshkosh Corp. I dabbled in health care for six years working for Affinity and being part of that migration between Affinity and Ministry, and then Ascension. That’s when I fell in love with technology, building websites and the whole infrastructure. Most recently I was with Ariens Company, where I helped build an e-commerce platform for this 100-year-old company, selling large power equipment and leveraging dealer inventory. It was a very exciting project. The last two-and-a-half years at Ariens, I was working on developing the Women’s Alliance, which was a group dedicated to supporting women in manufacturing. It was really fun building that alliance at Ariens Company and that kind of sparked me when I heard about this position with WIT.
WIT seems to have really grown over the last eight years.
We are maturing, and we’re growing in every which way. The organization was at an inflection point when they hired me. We have 40 board directors who are all volunteers. They had grown as much as they could with volunteers. I’m the first paid employee, so we’ve grown tremendously. Moving through the challenges of COVID, the need has just skyrocketed. We are officially statewide as of this past April, when we added our Northwestern region. We have four regions that make up the state: the Madison area,which is our Southcentral region; Milwaukee, which is our Southeast region; Northeastern; and Northwestern. Our organization is all about community and making sure that we are showing diversity, whether it’s in the classroom or in the boardroom. We do that through our three pillars: WIT4Girls, which is focused on that K-12 age; WITonCampus is a year-long program for college students. Right now we have over 80 students across the state and at over 15 colleges and universities, and we’re pairing them with 80 different mentors. Our last pillar is WIT@Work, where our focus is on upskilling, providing networking opportunities and helping match people with jobs.
Why have women historically been underrepresented in tech careers?
Right now women only represent 28% of the workforce in technology. And if you look at the different segments of STEAM careers, like computer science or engineering, that number goes down to 18%. Getting [career] visibility early and often in front of that K-12 age is important. It’s right around third grade that you start to see the separation, and we are working very hard to make sure that in the classroom, girls are seeing women of every shape, color and dimension who are sharing what it’s like to have a job in technology and how fun and exciting it is. But the reality is [the tech industry] is still a hard place to be. There’s only a handful of women in executive roles in technology across the country. Some of the statistics tell us it’s going to take over 133 years to close the economic gender gap at the rate we are currently moving. Child care is a huge part of many women’s lives, so remote work during COVID allowed these women to have more opportunities. But now you’re seeing a lot of tech changes, and the remote workforce is going back into the office. Women are also more likely to take roles that are customer-facing; we are still a minority in more technical roles like engineering and coding, which are deemed more essential. Lastly, women and minorities are likely to be represented as new hires in tech. When you’re looking at cutting jobs, the new hires are typically some of the first to go.
Why is it important for women to be represented in tech, especially as it rapidly changes?
AI is top of mind for everyone right now. If women and diverse populations aren’t represented as we’re starting to shape AI, it’s not going to be good. It’s really important to have a tech and AI workforce that is representative of the wider population, a truly diverse population. If it’s skewed in one direction or another, it’ll introduce a degree of bias into our algorithm. [Diversity] gives you a better result, and you will definitely be more competitive in the industry. If we always do what we’ve always done, we will always get what we always got. And as businesses are evolving because of COVID and our economic changes, we have to think differently, and we have to think differently fast. The best way to get a million different views of the same problem is to invite a diverse group of people and co-pilot with AI. And that’s where this all comes together. If you have a boardroom or classroom or a club and everybody’s the same, you’re not going to get the best solution.
What advice would you give someone who has been recently laid off from their tech job?
Especially in technology, you really need to keep upskilling; there are so many tools out there to help you. LinkedIn is an incredible resource for upskilling. The NEW Digital Alliance with New North, Inc. has a ton of outstanding resources to help individuals learn more about technology. I recently read there are upwards of 280,000 tech jobs on the horizon that are going to be brought to market in the very near future. As much as we’ve seen layoffs, it’s not that the jobs are being deleted. They’re just changing. What we should be talking about is how we prepare for those new jobs, how we evolve with the trends. And upskilling is truly the key.
What’s your favorite part of this job?
It’s a challenge every day. And I like challenges and problems, and the problem in front of us is totally solvable. And we will solve it. Not today, not tomorrow, but we’re starting to make great strides to making change happen.
