She Asked For Thoughts On Women In Analytics. Here's What I Said.
Meta S. Brown Contributor
I decode analytics for business people.
Here's what one seasoned old dame wants you to know about supporting women in analytics. (Image: Shutterstock)
Women have a better footing in analytics than any other STEM field.
Nearly half of all analytics professionals are women. I've got plenty of numbers to back that up claim, you can find many of them in my article, The STEM Profession that Women Dominate.
Yet many people are under the impression that women in analytics are a rarity. What's up?
I believe that two things are causing lower visibility for women in the field than men today. The first is the complex mix of cultural norms that holds women back throughout society. The second is the rise of the "data science" culture, which is dominated by men from the computer sciences.
Computing is the only STEM field that has experienced a long-term decline in women's participation; it would be a tragedy to allow those attitudes to overtake our profession. I believe we should act now to prevent that computing culture from redefining analytics, not only because of sexism in the computing culture, but also because analytics practices in the computing community are poor.
On a personal level, I have made it a personal mission to promote women in analytics.
It seems ridiculous that an industry that's half women would need any special effort to promote them. But I have been seeing conferences with few women speakers, false claims of shortages of women in analytics, and employers making stupid excuses for failing to hire women. I have focused on profiling accomplished women in analytics, as a resource for meeting planners and others.
You can find my first 425 profiles of accomplished women in analytics on LinkedIn, which includes a list of 262 women authors of analytics books. Profiles of 50 more outstanding women in analytics appear in articles I've written for Forbes:
Meet 9 Women Leading The Pack In Data Analytics
Meet 5 Fabulous Women Leading The Way In Social Media Analytics
8 Female Analytics Experts From The Fortune 500
Get To Know 25 Women Leading Data And Analytics In The US Government
Follow These 3 Women To Get The Lowdown On Data Analytics
A handful of women have become well known and popular in the "data science" community. More power to them, but concerns me that thousands of other equally accomplished women all but invisible in those circles.
I'd love to see more of my colleagues join me to spread the word about the more of the huge pool of capable women in the analytics industry.
As for high level points for a "women in analytics" conference, here are some things I'd suggest:
Getting the word out that a woman in analytics is as common as a man in analytics
Examining the places where women should be visible, such as publishing, conferences for academia and industry, and media. Exploring ways to promote women's opportunities in these and other channels
Providing career development guidance and help to women
Identifying and addressing discriminatory and sexist behavior against women in analytics. Helping employers and others to take positive corrective action
Public relations: the public image of analytics should be dominated by expert data analysts, not mere programmers with big databases
I could go on all day.
Dear readers, if you care about women in analytics, or better yet, diversity of all kinds in the profession, please take a few minutes of your time today and post about an analytics professional who deserves more recognition. Do it here in the comments, on twitter, in your blog, anywhere that feels right to you. Just do it today.
Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work here.
Meta S. Brown
I'm author of Data Mining for Dummies, and creator of the Storytelling for Data Analysts and Storytelling for Tech workshops. My work focuses on two challenges: 1) helpi...