When engineer Erica Baker began her tech career as a systems administrator for University of Alaska, she didn’t fit in. As the only black employee on her floor and the only woman on her entire team, she always felt out of place in the tech boy’s club.
Now as an engineer at Slack, Baker is helping women of color feel more at home in the tech industry without having to sacrifice who they are. Baker has become a vocal advocate for diversity and inclusion in Silicon Valley.
The tech industry is notorious white and male. According to PBS, 29 percent of employees are women and only seven percent of workers at the top tech firms identify as black.
In a poignant essay, Baker described the challenges of being a black tech worker. “I am a black woman who happens to work in the tech industry,” she wrote. “I don’t need to change to fit within my industry. My industry needs to change to make everyone feel included and accepted.”
When other techies of color started reaching out to Baker with similar experiences about the challenges they face in the industry, she decided something needed to be done.
Baker is the cofounder of Project Include, and “open community working toward providing meaningful diversity and inclusion solutions for tech companies.” In addition to her work with Slack and Project Include, Baker is also a board member for Girl Develop It, a tech mentor for Black Girls Code and an advisory board member of Hack the Hood.
Baker has never stopped trying to make tech an industry where women and people of color feel comfortable without having to change who they are and she hopes her work inspires tech leaders to take action. “There needs to be some acknowledgment that diversity doesn’t mean assimilation,” she told Techcrunch. “There needs to be more activism from people at the top of the industry.”
You can get Baker’s take on all things tech by following her on Twitter @EricaJoy.
