Women of Color Initiative (WOCI)

Women of Color Initiative (WOCI) is designed to enhance the advancement of women in industry, research, and higher education through targeted research-based strategies.  

WOCI has several campus components as well as city-wide collaborative components in partnership with Georgia Tech's Women's Resource Center and other higher education and community partners.

Under WOCI, the hope is that an eco-system of strategic partners committed to the advancement and uplift of women, recognition of the contributions of women of color, and addressing disparities at the intersection of race and gender, can be established throughout the greater Atlanta area.

Feature: 2021 WOCI "Why We Gather"

  • Black women comprise 13.7% of women and 6.9% of the total U.S population. Non-white Latinx women are 17.8% of women and 8.9% of the total U.S. population. (2018). Of the total bachelor’s degrees earned by women in the US. 11.4% were earned by Black women and 14.9% were earned by Latinx women. (2017-2018). Catalyst, Quick Take: Women of Color in the United States (March 19, 2020).
  • In 2019, conversely, Black and Latinx women are 3.2% and 3.5%, respectively, of Georgia Tech’s undergraduate population and 2.1% and 2%, respectively, of the graduate student population.  These same groups represent 8.2% and 9%, respectively, of undergraduate women matriculating at the Atlanta campus and via studies abroad and 6.7% and 6.5% of graduate women matriculating. 
  • The women within the URM undergraduate student population has increased from 687 to 1202, a 75% increase from 2011 to 2019. The women within the URM graduate student population has increased from 226 to 353, a 56% increase from 2011 to 2019.
  • WOC undergraduate population has increased from 4490 to 6327, a 41% increase between 2011 and 2019. Black women 54% increase (from 339 to 521). Latinx women 106% increase (from 276 to 568). WOC graduate population has increased from 1795 to 2477, a 38% increase between 2011 and 2019. Black women 22% increase (from 135 to 165). Latinx women 109% increase (from 77 to 161).

These numbers reflect a major opportunity to enhance the excellence of  Georgia Tech's talent pool through targeted initiatives aim to support, recruit, and retain ethnically, racially, and cognitively diverse cohorts.

In response, WOCI was launched in 2019!!!!