Sharla Alegria, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto

In this presentation, Dr. Alegria will discuss her research findings and draw on the broader academic literature on gender and race in tech work to explore emerging challenges to equity and inclusion, particularly as they emerge as gendering and racializing dimensions of workplace process, practices, and structures.  Applying an intersectional lens to understand how gender and race together shape women’s career paths in tech work, Alegria finds that white women, but not women of color, are promoted into mid-level management positions that do not provide pathways to executive leadership positions. In many cases, women accept or seek these “promotions” because they allow them more autonomy and control over their work time. Meanwhile, the tech industry is also the most extensive employer of temporary immigrant workers on H-1B visas in the U.S.—in tech, most of these workers are men from Indian. The terms of H-1B visas ensure these workers have very little opportunity to make the kinds of job moves that would increase their control over time or balance work/life goals. This talk will explore how these challenges and conflicts emerge in technical workplaces and the consequences for emerging technologies. It will conclude by focusing on the technologies that emerge from these workplaces, including generative AI and Machine Learning, to examine the ways that we can see race and gender inequalities are reproduced in the technologies themselves.

Sharla Alegria’s research examines inequalities that persist when individuals and organizations embrace principles of equity. She has received funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the United States National Science Foundation. Her work has appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, Gender & Society, and Ethnic & Racial Studies.

Sponsoring Departments/Programs/Offices:

Sociology, Dean of Faculty, Science, Technology and Society, American Studies, Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies, and Computer Science