Week 5: Big Tech’s Diversity Gap
Week 5
Discuss Big Tech’s Diversity Gap
Instructions
Since their inception, the largest American technology companies: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon, have faced challenges when it comes to hiring women and people of color. To their credit, these companies all started publishing annual diversity “report cards” in 2014. While these tech companies have made some progress, much remains to be done. For example, in 2014, only about 2% of Google’s employees were Black, but in its most recent report from 2021, that number had increased to over 4% (Google, 2021). Nevertheless, this is still well below the proportion of Black people in the US population, approximately 13%, meaning that Google still has a long way to go.
But diversity is about more than just demographics. True diversity means that these companies value the different perspectives that women and people of color bring to their organizations, but this may not be the case. A 2021 survey of over 2000 tech workers between the ages of 18-28 revealed that 68% of respondents felt uncomfortable in their role because of their gender, ethnicity, social class, or disability status (Melendez, 2021).
The same study found that half of all the respondents had either left their job or considered leaving their job because of an unwelcoming environment, with the percentages being even higher among women and people of color (Melendez, 2021). This had led many to draw a connection between the “Great Resignation,” in which millions of people have quit their jobs, and the lack of appreciation and respect for diversity in the workplace.
As you make your opening post this week, consider the following questions:
How important is diversity in technology fields? Why is it important?
What is lost when tech organizations lack diversity or don’t value it?
Beyond simply hiring more women and people of color, what else do these organizations need to do to become truly diverse? What does real diversity look like?
It seems like most of these companies are playing catch-up. Why weren’t these companies more diverse when they were
