A
recently published article on Gizmodo says that diversity
reports by tech companies are misleading, for these contain
“significant, quantifiable discrepancies—in workforce diversity,
in gender equity among people of color, and in representation among
top leadership.”
The
problem with these reports is that, one – they do not show the real
score, the
article said.
Even
the industry’s annual annual diversity reports, a crucial step
towards transparency, can hide vital information and nuance.
For
example, in filing their EEO-1, or the Employer Information Report --
a required document to be submitted to the EEOC and the
Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs
– companies use raw numbers to describe their workforce profile in
terms of race, gender, and employee classification.
In their
self-reported diversity data, however, only percentages are used,
which do not really depict a clear demographic data of their
organizations.
At the same time,
an analysis by Gizmodo of the combined EEO-1s and the diversity
reports of each of these 6 leading tech companies in the country –
Airbnb, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Apple and Yahoo - reveals a
still predominantly white, Asian workforce, not reflective of the US
demography which consists of 72 percent white, 16 percent
Hispanic, 12.6 percent black, 4.8 percent Asian,
despite these
companies' avowal to improve their respective workforce diversity.
The
ethnic or race diversity of each of these companies in 2015 showed
the following:
Airbnb: 48%
White, 43% Asian, 3% Hispanic, 1% Black and 5% Other (Native Hawaiian
or Pacific Islander, American Indian or Alaskan Native, and
non-disclosed race)
Facebook: 51%
White, 43% Asian, 3% Hispanic, 1% Black and 2% Other
Microsoft: 55%
White, 36% Asian, 4% Hispanic, 2% Black and 3% Other
Google: 59%
White, 35% Asian, 2% Hispanic, 1% Black and 3% Other
Apple: 59%
White, 25% Asian, 8% Hispanic, 7% Black and 1% Other
Yahoo: 61%
White, 31% Asian, 3% Hispanic, 1% Black and 4% Other
Asians/Asian
Americans in Tech Industry
A
quick look at the figures above show the odds seem to be in favor of
Asian Americans, but some think they are still discriminated against,
according to a report by
the Christian Science Monitor.
While Asians are well-represented in
the tech industry, the representation doesn’t extend to the
executive level, a phenomena that applies to other minority groups as
well. A study released May 2015 by Ascend, a pan-Asian organization
of business professionals in North America, found that while Asians
represent 27.2 percent of the professional workforce for tech giants
Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, LinkedIn and Yahoo, only 13.9 percent
of them are executives.
This
situation in fact was also reported last year – that Asian
Americans and Asians (holders of H-1B visas) are often employees, rarely CEOs.
Ascend, an Asian-American
professional organization based in New York, found that although 27
percent of professionals working at those companies are Asian or
Asian-American, fewer than 19 percent of managers, and just under 14
percent of executives, are.
Asian women are especially
underrepresented.
Another report says the same
thing: The authors crunched previously unavailable EEOC
data for 2013 released by Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, LinkedIn,
and Yahoo, which includes data for 139,370 professionals. They found
that whites were overrepresented in management (72.2%) and executive
(80.3%) roles compared to the 62.2% of professional technical staff
they represented. And, they found that Asians were 27.2% of
professionals, 18.8% of managers, and 13.9% of executives.
It
should also be noted that the Asian American/Asian community in the
US is likewise a diverse group; hence, one needs to take a closer
look at who among this demographic group are most likely to be in
STEM.
A
survey by the Pew Research Center a few years back
showed that among Asians in the US with H-1B visas, those from India
comprised 56 % while 44% came from other countries.
In
terms of high educational attainment, among Asian Americans aged 25
years and older, 70% of Indian descent have a bachelor's degree or
higher, followed by 53% Koreans, 51% Chinese, 47% Filipinos, 46%
Japanese and 26% Vietnamese.
Gender
Disparity in Tech Industry
In
terms of gender diversity, the Gizmodo article reported that those
six major tech companies were predominantly male; but when
tech companies focus on recruiting more women, that usually results
in more white women.
In other words,
women of color remain to be a marginalized group – not only because
of their gender, but of their race/ethnicity.
As to the general
lack of gender diversity in tech, some observers think this is
brought about by women's own lack of interest in the field, while
there are those that say the discrimination and sexism faced by
women
in STEM – such as being passed over in favor of men with equal
qualifications - are what push them to leave the industry.
http://www.diversityworking.com/communityChannels/women/
A
recent report released by First Round, a venture capital firm,
on
the state of US startup companies
shows that men and women seem to differ in their view as to the
reason behind the lack of diversity in the tech industry.
It interviewed more than 700
founders, 83% of whom were male, and found that diversity is still
huge problem within the technology sector. […] Nearly 50% of men
thought the main reason was too few women and minorities entering the
tech sector. Only 23% of women agreed with them. The biggest reason
for the lack of diversity in tech, in female founders’ eyes, was
unconscious bias. Only 12% of male founders thought this was the main
driver behind male and pale dominance.
Some tech insiders
allude to
a dearth in the pipeline as a reason for the
industry's diversity problem; however, some diversity proponents see
this only as an excuse, an NPR report said.
The "pipeline" argument — that there are simply not
enough properly skilled minorities for hire — has troubled
diversity experts in Silicon Valley for years.
"It's always been a cop-out," says Kalimah Priforce,
who runs Oakland-based Qeyno Labs, which organizes hackathons
targeted at minority youth. "The pipeline has a bias. ... Their
version of the pipeline is what's creating the outcome that we see."
But back to what
the Gizmodo says in its article, though there has been progress made
so far in increasing the diversity numbers in the tech sector, much
still needs to be done. We know diversity companies have their own
diversity initiatives and diversity goals. Yet some commenters say
there is only much talk, without much implementation of suggested
solutions.
It's clear a big
challenge remains in the tech industry. It is not only a question of
improving the numbers by hiring and retaining more, but this calls
for truly creating a more inclusive, welcoming work environment where
each employee can perform to his/her utmost best. Diversity and inclusion. They go hand in hand.
Perhaps it is time
for the top brass – especially the males - to look more honestly
inside them, spot their unconscious biases, and exert all means to
erase these from their system. Those at the top should try to get
down from their pedestal and mingle with those from the minority
groups in their organizations and see things from their perspective.
It's the only way to make things better: to walk the talk.
And not the least,
diversity reports should be honest reflection of the real diversity
state in the respective workplace - and that include specific, measurable goals and trackable
accountability that reflects on particular managers — and the CEO.
