Will DEI and Women in Tech Persevere? If nothing changes, where do we go from here?

I have been thinking a lot about?perseverance and endurance and how we relate to our life journeys. The ups, the downs, the pivots, the unexpected twists and turns. When someone navigates through challenges and exhibits a sense of strength?through the storms, we call them resilient.?

I was a child living in and out of trailer parks, experienced off and on homelessness, and a slew of unimaginable experiences that will take multiple books to travel back in time through. I've been called resilient?since I was ten years old. In 1999 I hopped on a greyhound bus bound for California, leaving behind my family and the only home I knew in New Mexico, with two suitcases and $20 in search of my life--a new beginning.?

"You're like a cat with nine lives. You always bounce back on your feet." My aunt once told me when I first struck out on my own entrepreneurial?journey in 2007 and experienced?the first of many epic failures.

I've cringed at the word resilient because it denotes that someone is able to recover quickly and to spring back into shape and come back together, seemingly unharmed or unchanged.?

The truth is though--every experience changes us, shapes us, and imprints us.?

I have persevered and I have endured.

I have continued on a course of action even in the face of difficulty with little or no prospect of success, and I have endured a climate, an environment, and the industries and institutions that have kept me in a chokehold.

That's also what I see happening with the DEI initiatives and organizations, the women in tech platforms, the projects and companies launched by black and brown humans, the orgs like The Fearless Fund who are being politically attacked and sued--they/we have had to persevere and endure.

Some of us will keep going. Some of us will be forced to quit. Some of us will let go of the fight because we can no longer endure.

Last week I mourned the loss of Women Who Code , an organization who created the pathways for platforms like Wonder Women Tech to exist. I am still processing their dissolution also because it hits too close to home. Too close.

I feel like I have been sharing my personal and professional struggles throughout this entire pandemic and save for a few people who have raised their hands over the last four years, it has largely felt like an echo chamber. It has felt like we have been standing in a void hoping someone will hear us, fund us--save us?

I know the heaviness of having to weigh the pros and cons to choose whether to bleed and fight or to keep going. There is a panic that happens when you know the reality that "nothing changes if nothing changes" and yet... nothing changes. Too many founders, too many nonprofit organizations, too many companies, projects and initiatives are easily abandoned and let go of when it is no longer a company focus or important for the bottom line or for the brand image.

No one asks what becomes of the humans at the frontlines of this work. What do they do next? What about their livelihood? Does it matter? Do you ask: How can you support them? Can you skip a coffee for a day, a week, a month and pitch in to keep them alive? Can you leverage your contacts and connections, or join them on the battleground?

We tiptoe in and out of the larger conversations that we should be having. If we eradicate the women in tech platforms, or our focus to increase representation in Fortune 500 companies, what becomes of gender parity? If we eradicate DEI and inclusive platforms and initiatives that support the humans, (largely black and brown) who continuously are removed, harmed, and shut out of access to education and jobs, what becomes of innovation for the future of all humans? If we abolish ideas that allow us to learn how we create a culture of belonging, what becomes of safe and supportive work environments?

Over ten years ago I stood at the forefront of impact, excited and ready to be part of the story of changemakers doing something about serving humanity so that all of us have an opportunity to belong and thrive.

I am terrified of how far we have slipped backwards, careening off a cliff and into the abyss of regression. We are on a slippery?slope that will invalidate all of the progress our civil rights leaders, futurists, and activists?have pushed forward.

Today, I have managed to use all of my resources and partnerships to negotiate venues in multiple parts of the world to create spaces for solution building, thought leadership, connection and access. I have landed a state-of-the-art convention center in a historic partnership that has spanned almost a decade with the support of an entire city and multiple city officials.

If I didn't have to be innovative and resourceful, WONDER WOMEN TECH WOULD DIE.

Do you know how hard it is for me to keep these partnerships alive and to score these beautiful venues with little capital up front? I've watched people take this kind of hard work for granted or to criticize what I do, or what I have built. When something doesn't go right or isn't perfect, or wasn't as good as the "cool high-tech conference" with millions of dollars in budget was able to pull off, they drop us. They drop Wonder Women Tech and others like it.

I've watched this happen for years and I have talked with other founders, other leaders in this space who have said the same thing. Companies pit us against each other. Google will fund Grace Hopper Celebration but not Wonder Women Tech, or Amazon will fund Afrotech but not Wonder Women Tech and they TELL ME.

We are out here in these streets working in local communities, national and international communities. I've sat in rooms and listened to the needs of our ecosystem and designed and built supportive initiatives outside of the conferences to be able to create greater impact.

What becomes of the leaders who are rolling up their sleeves, mud slinging at them and all around them, until they are bone tired and barely hanging on until they have to write that email, make that announcement, hang up their gloves and exit the arena?

What becomes of the little girl in the trailer park who was told she wouldn't amount to anything and would always be trailer trash because her teachers didn't support her, and the world called her names because of the color of her skin? The little girl who wanted to be an astronaut and instead gets to interview them on podcasts and stages--stages she had to build. Stages she built after enduring the unimaginable and persevering where it is possible?

Wonder Women Tech hasn't received any new funding in the better part of a year. A YEAR! We are drowning and sometimes I wonder if anyone cares. It's not for lack of my team and I not showing up every single day working so hard to keep doing this work. I am still having hard conversations with leaders, and still sending out hundreds of emails, and still negotiating with venues and vendors and keeping moving forward. I still serve a Chair for the Commission for Tech and Innovation for a large city making sure they are including inclusive and ethical conversation and serving on the sub-committees that drive these initiatives?forward.

I am a human though--I am barely hanging on. I have had people casually tell me to just let go. Go find another job. Give up. Yeah--I can do that perhaps. But if nothing changes, nothing changes. DEIB leaders are exiting at a rapid rate. Black women in corporate America are leaving in droves, and the industry has almost come to a standstill.

What of our future??

I eat ramen noodles by the case so I can save what money I can make in between paychecks to make sure we don't lose our opportunity to at least go out with a bang with WONDER. I have to hold on until then--right?

I wonder how many other leaders are like me, holding on with every fiber of their being to keep going, just one more day, so that we don't lose all we have worked for over generations. How many people like me have had to use the scraps they are given to make magic happen and keep up appearances?

We deserve more than scraps? What of our future?

Our Time Is Now.

Lisa Mae Brunson

Founder, Wonder Women Tech

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