The number of Black, Latina, and Native American (BLNA) women in the tech sector is decreasing despite increased numbers of BLNA women who are graduates, says Dwana Franklin-Davis, CEO of Reboot Representation, which works to close the gap for underrepresented women in the tech sector.
Franklin-Davis joined WorkingNation’s editor-in-chief Ramona Schindelheim for an interview for WorkingNation Overheard at JFF Horizons in Washington, D.C.
She says, “There’s work that needs to happen right now on our corporate partner side that we need to do it in order to better advance, retain that talent inside of our organizations.” Franklin-Davis adds this might include paid sick leave and mentorship during the interview process.
When asked if employers understand what BLNA women are looking for in the workplace, Franklin-Davis says, “The climate right now is kind of challenging when it comes to understanding. Companies, when they look at the list, they say, ‘Check, check, check. We have all these things, Dwana, we’re good.
“The reality is, in the example of paid sick leave, I know that all of my partners have paid sick leave, but the data shows that Black and Latino women were not taking advantage of that practice. They were not leveraging the policy. An organization needs to be intentional about the policies they have and not just have them, but make sure that their entire population is leveraging them and utilizing them.”
Franklin-Davis continues, “Broadband should be as essential as running water. We can’t talk about AI skilling when a population doesn’t even have access to the internet. So, the skills are important.”
Regarding high school students, she says, “They shouldn’t have to graduate from high school and then take remedial classes – they should have learned in high school already. There’s a lot of work that we need to do in order to get all of the entire population ready for the workforce.”
Learn more about Reboot Representation.
WorkingNation Overheard at JFF Horizons 2024 was made possible through funding from EnGen.
© Copyright 2024 by Structural Unemployment, LLC dba WorkingNation
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Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
