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In the mid-1800s, a bright mathematician by the name of Ada Lovelace wrote the instructions for the first computer program, but her article was overlooked while she was alive and only received posthumous recognition. Unfortunately, over a century later, women still aren’t getting the recognition they deserve in the technology industry. Women are often overlooked for promotions, paid less than their male counterparts in the same position and are critiqued on their personality rather than the quality of their work. Prejudice in the workplace creates a hostile work environment, and it’s ostracizing highly qualified women in the tech industry.
Unfortunately, there is significant data that serves as evidence for the massive gender gap in the tech industry. Women find themselves walking a tightrope in which they must balance traditionally masculine qualities like assertiveness and feminine qualities like modesty. Successful entrepreneurial titans are viewed as technical and fearless with a go-getter attitude—typically masculine traits, but when women display such characteristics they’re cast as being a bitch, or not a team player. Yet, when they don’t display these qualities, women are viewed as incompetent and forced to prove themselves repeatedly. And it is not just women facing discrimination in tech, but also minorities.
For minorities, there is a serious lack of representation in technical world, especially at the highest levels of the corporate ladder. When a firm lacks diversity in upper-level management positions, the negative effects are twofold. Recruiting and retaining minority employees becomes increasingly difficult because of isolation and significant lack of access to mentors. The tech industry is limiting its ability to innovate, and it’s missing product opportunities for key user populations by failing to model diversity in the workplace.
At the South by Southwest Interactive conference—SXSWi, or “South By”—Silicon Valley giants like Facebook, Google and Yahoo released diversity reports detailing the gender and racial makeup of their workforce. The results? Silicon Valley is even more male dominated and more whitewashed than you may have expected. Google’s tech workforce is 17 percent female, 2 percent Hispanic, and 1 percent African-Americans. Other giants that released their diversity reports at last year’s SXSWi followed the same dismal pattern as Google: Twitter, Yahoo and Facebook’s workforces also reflect the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley. So, in an industry that is ostensibly a modern, progressive meritocracy, why do the numbers lag so far behind? What are the barriers preventing an inclusive workforce in the tech industry? How can the industry reverse the precedent that excludes women and minorities?
South by Southwest aims to showcase upcoming technologies and industry leaders through trade shows, talks and panels in order to inspire creativity in the tech world. This year, SXSWi took steps to focus on diversity in the tech world. Panels discussed diversity and featured increased female, Latino and African American participation. But ironically, during a panel session titled “How Innovation Happens,” Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt was chastised for constantly interrupting a panel co-member, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith.
An audience member addressed Schmidt, asking, “Given that unconscious bias research tells us that women are interrupted a lot more than men, I’m wondering if you are aware that you have interrupted Megan many more times.” This audience member was Judith Williams, who heads Google’s Unconscious Bias program. Schmidt failed to respond to Williams; perhaps he should be critiqued for demonstrating cowardice. This incident demonstrates that sexism is not always outright, but can be nuanced and subtle.
There are discouraging obstacles that women and minorities face before even entering the workforce, something familiarized even as business students at CU. During a lecture about leadership in my management class, we were shown a slide of the “titans” of business management. Out of eight or so figures all but one was a white male—the other was a male character from the Simpsons. I sat and stared at the whitewashed representation of successful business leaders, and I laughed. A single slide alienated well over half the class by excluding women and minorities from the representation of success in business, but the selections for the slide were based on a structural unconscious bias. That bias stems from hegemonic gender scripts that value masculine qualities over feminine qualities for those in leadership roles or positions of power. While my personal experience and the bias Megan Smith faced at SXSWi are isolated examples, they represent a common experience for women and people of color in the technological and business sector. Unconscious biases serve as roadblocks that discourage women and minorities from becoming fully integrated in the workforce. Changing this norm will require a conscious effort directed at attracting, retaining and promoting a diverse workforce.
The problematic way that women are being treated in the tech world has become more visible with high-profile executives like Sheryl Sandberg, Marissa Mayer and Meg Whitman, who have become role models to women who aspire to play ball in the Silicon Valley boys club. More recently bringing attention to gender bias is Ellen Pao’s $16 million dollar gender discrimination suit against her former employer, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a venture capital firm located in Menlo Park. The trial took place in February of this year. Though the verdict rejecting her claims came out earlier last week, the visibility of the case brings attention to the issue of the underrepresentation of women and minorities in both the venture capital and tech industries. Pao’s story demonstrates the discrimination women face in male dominated industries, which acts as a barrier preventing women from moving up the corporate ladder.
Becoming aware of the facts is the first step in remedying the problem. While tech firms claim that diversity has become a corporate value — much like ethics, quality and social responsibility — evidence supports the contrary. The diversity reports and examples of workplace discrimination demonstrate tech firms are at the start of a long journey to a diverse and inclusive work environment.
By the year 2040 the U.S. will be a majority-minority nation, the fastest growing segments of the populace being African-American and Latino. Having a workforce in the tech industry that is representative of the demographics of the marketplace translates into increased profits. By bringing together unique perspectives to problem solving, new ideas relevant to customer needs can be brought to the marketplace. There are efforts from third party firms like Code2040, whose mission is to increase representation of Latinos and African-Americans in the tech industry, or Girls Who Code with its mission to reach gender equality in the workplace. I believe that a razor-sharp focus on data and forward-moving orientation will facilitate the evolution towards a more inclusive and diverse tech industry. Ultimately, attaining an inclusive work environment will result in a more innovative and successful tech industry — one that treats all valuable innovators and workers with the respect they deserve.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Annalise Downey at annalise.downey@colorado.edu.
