CINCINNATI — The tech industry is growing, but the number of Black women in tech isn’t. The Urban League is hoping to change that by bringing more Black women into the field and helping them move up the ladder.
What You Need To Know
- Keturah Tatum is a data analyst as well as a business owner
- Only 3% of the computing workforce is Black women
- The Urban League of Southwestern Ohio started a Black Women in Tech Program to get more Black women in the field and to climb the ranks
- Tatum earned a data analyst certificate program and says it helped her in her corporate job as well as an entrepreneur
Keturah Tatum has figured out the science of making the perfect candle. After a few years working for a luxury cosmetics company, she decided to try it out on her own.
“They are all about scent knowledge, all about pairing scents," Tatum said. "So over those two years I learned so much about combining different scents.”
By making candles and other beauty products safe to use.
“I always bought candles and I didn’t necessarily know what was in them," she said. "So once I did my research I was like wow wait these candles are not good for us. What can I do to make them all natural?”
Tatum’s business Kadosh Aromas was born. But the business owner also kept her job as a data analyst at a corporate company. Soon, she realized there was a lot of crossover between her two worlds. Which is why she decided to be a part of the first cohort of the Urban League of Southwestern Ohio’s Black Women in Tech Program.
“I see how these kind of go hand in hand," Tatum said. "So putting a lot of the skills that I did learn in the program into my day to day was pretty cool.”
Tatum is a rarity in the tech world. Black women make up just 3% of the computing workforce. 27% of workers in tech are women, with just 2% Hispanic women and 7% Asian women, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology. That’s why taking this course was so important for Tatum.
“There aren't a lot of Black women in tech," she said. "And being that I work in corporate and being one of the, there's maybe two or three Black women that are in my department alone. So just to know that, you know, this program was offered to kind of facilitate that, that further learning for other black women, it’s empowering.”
Now, with a certificate in data analytics, Tatum has gotten a promotion in her corporate job and has been able to use the skills to grow and understand her own business, something she says is invaluable.
“I'm actually able to kind of do that myself to analyze that data in ways that before it was, you know, I saw the data, but I wasn't able to really understand what was going on," she said. "And now I'm able to see those numbers and I can break those down to see my own bottom line.”
The Urban League of Southwestern Ohio offers certifications, in partnership with Google, in several areas including IT Support, cybersecurity and project management. The program is free and self-led.