Yes I’m a Black Woman in Data Science
I was introduced to the wonderful world of STEM when I was 11 and intrigued with the interaction of engineering and creativity. Especially when those things influenced positive social change like inventing new ways of doing things, or a new thing altogether. My name’s Jax. I am a young black woman from Oakland, California.
I was equally enthralled with the arts, and found my way into modeling for magazines and other editorial opportunities all over the world. I drifted from STEM and learned that my physical attributes as a black woman were more valuable than my mind. Well I’m back. I cannot wait to break into the field of data science, which is sadly completely underrepresented by women. Especially not only black women, but black people make only 3% of data and analytics professionals.
All my life I’ve wanted to make a difference. My social impact has been my highest priority for as long as I can remember. I thought, “I can’t change the world behind a computer” so I stopped before really even beginning. I was conditioned in my career that my strongest traits will always be physical and seeing the sad statistics of women in data science made me feel like it wasn’t for me.
“I thought, I can’t change the world behind a computer.”
I’m standing (well, sitting) here now to tell you that’s wrong. This career field is growing rapidly and is advertised as the sexiest job of the 21st century. This makes data science most ripe for equity and inclusion reformation. That is exactly why it is so crucial the people working in this field represent different backgrounds and are gender balanced.
Data science is the intersection of math and programming to be an analytics powerhouse. It’s beautiful and the future of automation. The role of a data scientist is to be the guiding light of opportunity in this world of big data. This job market has more positions than people to fill them and multiple levels of education and skill levels to break into.
“That future needs diversity, innovation and resilience.”
Today I’m working in an entirely new language, shaping data to inform real world business decisions, learning about advanced statistics and calculating probabilities. Does that future sound daunting to you? It shouldn’t be, because in other words I’m talking to computers to help me gain insights from facts.
Now those insights are unique to my perspective and life experiences that noone else has. With data science I present value through my interpretations and my knowledge will influence the machine learning models I build. So in a way my life will change the world. So think again and be that future.
“Data is the new oil and like oil, at first it is crude and raw. You can refine it.”