Priyanka Ashraf is building Australia’s first community of Bla(c)k Women and Women of Colour in tech & startups.
Her approach? Intersectionality.
Ashraf is the Founder and Director of The Creative Co-Operative (CCO), a social enterprise addressing the employment and economic access barriers faced by Women of Colour as a result of systemic racism. They support Bla(c)k Women and Women of Colour communities to build tech skills, join tech startups and to eventually, start them too.
The Creative Co-Operative advocates for Bla(c)k Women and Women of Colour to ensure they’re represented in key decision-making conversations. It takes an intersectional approach, with community driven programs supporting the next generation of intersectional entrepreneurs, startup operators and founders.
Ashraf was recently named in The List of Top 100 Innovators 2022 in The Australian and says her focus at the moment is on the upcoming Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra from September 1-2, and whether the nuanced requirements of Bla(c)k Women and Women of Colour in relation to jobs and skills will be considered from an intersectional lens. She says it’s critical to address barriers to accessing skills training and employment for these job seekers.
Ashraf also notes the importance of intersectional language in government decision-making to ensure that diverse groups with different needs aren’t grouped into the singular category of “culturally and linguistically diverse.” She credits Kimberle Crenshaw for coining the term, “intersectionality” and hopes to build off Crenshaw’s original leadership in this movement.
The last part of the puzzle is whether programs designed to support Bla(c)k Women and Women of Colour are being informed and driven by their input and delivered by people who represent their lived experience.
Through research of investments in the startup ecosystem, Ashraf says: “There was over 10 billion invested in all Aussie startups last year. Of that 10 billion, 22 per cent went to all women founders and 0.03 per cent went to early-stage Bla(c)k Women and Women of Colour founders.”
Below, Ashraf shares some updates on the work her organisation has been doing to drive a more diverse entreprenship ecosystem in Australia, since she was named the 2021 winner of Women’s Agenda’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in the Leadership Awards program. For any Bla(c)k Women and Women of Colour or allies interested in the Creative Co-Operative’s Anyone Can startup program, applications for their third cohort are now open.
Join us at the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards! Tickets are now available here.
Can you give us any updates on the work that the Creative Co-Operative has been doing for migrant women of colour?
So, we won the award and at that point, our focus was on supporting more Bla(c)k Women and Women of Colour to become startup founders themselves – we launched applications for cohort one.
We had over 100 applications for the first cohort and now we’re more than halfway through the second cohort and have heard from over 200 women.
From the people in our communities who are interested– many people haven’t previously worked at startups, so that means we need to go earlier in the pipeline and make sure that our communities have access to tech skills, tech jobs and tech experience.
So, we’re going earlier in the pipeline and designing a program that is by and with the very community that we want to serve. We’re going to support 75 Bla(c)k Women and Women of Colour to get upskilled in tech and get into tech startups by the end of 2023. Our big announcement of this program is coming soon.
Can you tell us about a project you’ve been working on over the past year that you’re really excited about?
There’s been significant and organic ecosystem growth. Since the release of our report and commencement of our programs, we’ve seen the ecosystem respond and offer targeted supports, such as new programs and pitch competitions targeting intersectional participants that offer financial rewards at the end of the program (most incubators and accelerators programs in Australia do not do this), program scholarships and free organisation / club memberships specifically carved out for Bla(c)k Women and Women of Colour. These are the types of supports that are a start to creating a more equal playing field.
The message is getting across that we need to take an intersectional approach. We [women of colour] are not at the same starting line. Structurally, we’re seeing industry respond to that to get on board to support our community and that’s been really encouraging – but it’s also just the start as there’s a lot of work ahead of us still. Beyond that, we’ve seen other women of colour organisations emerge in this space, which has been a fantastic indication of our collective growth as a community.
What do you believe urgently needs to change for women in your current area of work or focus?
I didn’t personally know what a force of power working mums are until I started working with them. At home, they have to do so many things at the same time, which translates into operational excellence at work. They are master project managers and, quite frankly, as an employer, I am more interested in outputs and outcomes (vs the inputs) and I don’t necessarily care what the hours are, if the work is getting done.
I think the problem is we don’t always have access to spaces where we can simultaneously communicate our needs and capabilities. Generally, I’ve found mothers just get the work done if we get out of their way. I think the problem in current environments, despite a post COVID19 world, is that we’re still worried about facetime and work hours. What is more important is transparency, understanding and mutual agreement of the outcomes of the role and the individual is then in the driver’s seat to perform the work as agreed upon and trusted.
What advice do you have for women who are looking to push the status quo on trying to achieve better outcomes for others?
Firstly, be a servant, not a saviour. To serve is a privilege and sometimes the attention that comes with doing this work means we lose sight of what is important and shift from servant to saviour, at which point our work no longer serves anyone other than ourselves.
Secondly, understand whether we’re helping or hindering. There are people who would like to support us in our work and sometimes there is a lack of awareness of what is the appropriate way to do it.
Even now, I have people reach out to me regularly to request me to consult or speak unpaid at their meetups / panels / events / podcasts thinking The CCO and I will benefit from the “”exposure”. Most of the time, they don’t understand what they are doing is asking someone, who isn’t at the same starting line as them, to perform work that is unpaid.
What, generally, is your best career tip for making big things happen?
Be aware, then be bullish.
There are a lot of opportunities out there in this continent – but not everybody is going to get access to the opportunities the same way.
Once you know what are the specific barriers to your success, make your plan around that because there isn’t one plan for everybody.
I was admitted as a lawyer but couldn’t work as a lawyer because nobody wanted to give me a go. They looked at me and were like, ‘You’re a Woman of Colour and Bangladeshi so you probably won’t be at the level we expect.’
Today, I’m in the best job I could dream of having. I attained it by understanding and then overcoming the limitations in my way to create it for myself.
I am privileged to be a part of this movement. We’re actively designing new structures, opposite to the old ones that have made it more difficult for people like me to get past the starting line. The change is exciting and it is here.
Finally, it’s important that we support one another along the way and remember it’s not about fighting over the one seat but working together to create a bigger, better table. This is something we’re actively doing at The CCO and I would say this to date, is the single biggest and most beautiful thing we’ve made happen.