Women of Color Initiative (WOCI) is OMED's newest initiative aimed to enhance the advancement of women in industry, research, and higher education through targeted research-based strategies. OMED seeks to fulfill this aim through advocacy, accountability, cultural awareness, leadership development, recognition, cultivation of student-driven productivity spaces, and strategic collaboration.
WOCI has several 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 of women, as well as addressing disparities at the intersection of race and gender, can be established throughout the greater Atlanta area.
- According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Black women are 13.7% of women ages 18-64 and 6.8% of the total U.S population age 18-64. Latinx women are 15.2% of women ages 18-64 (3.4% for non-white Latinx women) and 7.6% of the total U.S. population age 18-64.
- In 2019, conversely, Black and Latinx women are a 3.3 % and 3.6%, respectively, of Georgia Tech’s undergraduate population and 8.4 % and 9.2%, respectively, of undergraduate women matriculating at the Atlanta campus and via studies abroad.
- WOC undergraduate population has increased from 593 to 1191 (a 100% increase) between 2010 and 2019. Black women 81% increase (from 285 to 516 ). Latinx women 131% increase (from 244 to 564)
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!!!!
