Progress on gender diversity at work still needs improvement. To achieve equality, some believe companies must turn good intentions into concrete action. But leaders with one co-working space in Edina are doing their part to help create a future where women of color lead at the highest levels across all sectors.
It’s all part of the "The State of Womxn of Color Roadshow."
The Riveter, a Seattle based company with ten locations across the U.S., is creating an opportunity for that conversation across the country through a partnership with an organization called Future For Us.
The spelling of womxn is meant to show inclusion of trans, non-binary, womxn of color, womxn with disabilities and all other marginalized genders. Both The Riveter and Future for Us use this spelling to indicate that our spaces and platform are open to anyone who identifies as such.
Sage Quiamno, the co-founder of Future for Us, said she never saw herself included or felt like she belonged during various points of her career.
“The problem we want to solve is creating better and intentional communities for women of color to get the resources that they need to advance at work. We want to solve the problem with the leadership gap,” she said.
She is on a mission to uplift communities and arm people with data.
“We are facing other issues within companies because we are not creating inclusive environments for us to do well. Twenty-one-percent of women of color feel like they can't be themselves at work. Forty-percent women of color feel like they need to downplay their ethnicity to succeed at work,” she said siting dating from McKinsey & Company.
Jodi-Ann Burey is Riveter’s senior Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion. She said you cannot envision or prepare for the future of work without women of color at the center of it.
“Too often people claim that people of color and women of color specifically are too hard to find. This is not true. Even in the least racially diverse cities, there are vibrant communities of color who create spaces where they can be seen, heard and valued,” Burey said. “Gender bias unites women’s experiences at work, but those experiences are not the same. Partnering with Future for Us and others as The Riveter continues to grow is part of a larger initiative to bring diversity and intersectionality to the forefront of our fight towards equity of opportunity for all women.”
To learn more about the October 24th event, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/state-of-womxn-of-color-advancing-community-culture-and-careers-mn-tickets-69759764333