Marketplace Tech With Molly Wood

This episode originally aired Sept. 11, 2024.Over the last couple of years, the tech industry has slashed hundreds of thousands of jobs, many of them in recruiting and other departments that work to improve diversity. Companies like Meta and Google, which earlier set ambitious hiring and investment goals, have pulled resources from those efforts.As a result, many nonprofit groups set up to train and recruit underrepresented workers are struggling to stay afloat. One prominent person in the field is Lisa Mae Brunson, founder of the nonprofit Wonder Women Tech. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino asked her how things have changed. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.Lisa Mae Brunson: We saw the writing on the wall where it seemed like companies were performative, despite the fact that, statistically, companies will perform better when they have diverse teams. Their bottom line will actually increase, they will make more profits. But that wasn’t really what they were looking at. I mean, I