‘It’s lonely’: Sask. report breaks down challenges for Indigenous women in technology

A report released by Ethical Digital unveiled the four most common barriers for Indigenous women entering technology careers in Saskatchewan after 2022 research showed they were among the most underrepresented populations in the industry.

“It’s lonely, but that’s been my entire career,” said Leanne Bellegarde, CEO and co-founder of Akawe Technologies. “If I wanted to see it to be it, I could only look in the mirror.”

Bellegarde, who has served more than 10 years in the technology industry, said she has felt outnumbered as one of the few Indigenous women in the field.

Research from the Diversity in Tech Dashboard survey in 2022 showed that Indigenous people represented only 0.07 to 1.4 per cent of the technology sector in Canada.

“The biggest challenge as an Indigenous female in the tech sector, as a founder, is venture capital. Having to raise funds is incredibly difficult because there is nobody on the other side of the table that looks like me. Quite frankly, I think there is still a lot of bias in the venture capital field and in competing with other tech founders.”

3:58 Promoting diversity in the technology sector

Through her company, she provides Indigenous entrepreneurs with matching opportunities through business planning, web-building and consultations. It is intended to fulfill a portion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Action Plan.

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“It was really an inspiration to think about how the next seven generations of our people will make a living,” Bellegarde said. “For all of us, it’s increasingly virtual, online, and we aren’t there.”

Ethical Digital interviewed 123 Indigenous women on and off reserves about what they see as barriers to entering into careers in technology.

Some of the most common challenges described in the report were financial barriers, training locations, education and professional requirements, and family obligations and responsibilities.

Among the responses, 47 per cent of Indigenous women noted that funding and access to money was the number one barrier when pursuing a career in technology.

“If technology is the future, we should have all people involved in creating that future,” said Katrina German, CEO and founder of Ethical Digital.

Fifty-two per cent of research participants said they were being held back from entering the tech industry due to their current level of education.

Thirty-one per cent of respondents had earned a bachelor’s degree and 15 per cent earned either a business or technical certificate.

Twenty-eight per cent of participants said the location of career training was a barrier and nine per cent of respondents faced obstacles of child care or family obligations.

2:03 Tech conference ‘Collision’ focuses on women in industry

“Saskatoon is known as the fastest growing tech community besides Waterloo in Canada,” German claimed. “It’s very exciting growth that you can watch over time; we just want that growth to be more inclusive. We’re just becoming the bridge between Indigenous communities and the technology communities in the province.”

The report stated that Ethical Digital’s next steps are to increase funding supports for Indigenous women, bring career training to First Nations communities, develop women-centered workplace policies that focus on child care or remote capabilities, and create new credential programs for specific vacancies.

– with files from Global News’ Kabilan Moulitharan