Several years of progress reports have done little to change the culture.
In the current climate, big tech is under fire for everything from misuse of personal data to its outsize influence in public discourse. But one issue that hasn’t seemed to go away is its lack of diversity. There was a lot of noise in 2014 when the industry’s major players began releasing annual diversity reports[1]. However, these reports have done little except exaggerate how white and male the tech industry is.
Despite the constant outcry about tech’s diversity problem, the statistics remain nearly unchanged. Each report is more like a carbon copy of the last rather than an indication of cultural change.
Why, if this is such an urgent issue, are these companies performing so poorly? It’s not hard to imagine that they’d react swiftly to a bug in their apps or a defect in one of their products. But somehow, diversity is beyond their purview and a viable solution seems out of reach.
One reason may be the focus on data[2]. Tech companies have built empires based on data. They compile it, analyze it, and use it to develop products and features and predict user behaviors. Thus, they’ve tried to tackle diversity the same way. If they can compile and assess the numbers on diversity, they can improve it. But diversity isn’t load time or bounce rate or UX. It’s a multifaceted issue that requires an equally complex plan of attack.
But just as diversity isn’t a numbers problem, tech’s diversity problem isn’t only because of its obsession with data. It’s also because there aren’t enough diverse decision-makers at the top. Among the big five – Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Alphabet, and Microsoft – there was only one Black executive on the books in 2020[3]. How can these companies possibly prioritize and comprehend the importance of diversity if there’s no one in the room to act as an advocate? A Black leader in the boardroom could attest to diversity’s power and the many ways it could transform the company. That representation could serve as a bridge between a seemingly abstract concept and very real outcomes.
There’s also a misplaced focus on the pipeline. We hear this across industries – companies would hire more diverse employees if they could find qualified candidates. This has led many educational institutions to double down on recruitment for STEM, with an outsized emphasis on coding. But rarely is this foundational knowledge linked to equity and responsibility[4]. It’s one thing to learn how to code, but then how do you apply what you’ve learned in a way that promotes inclusivity and fairness? The masses are being trained to enter the field without the soft skills to solve its biggest problems.
At its core, tech’s diversity problem is about culture, one that believes in data to a fault, one that’s disconnected from the groups it wants to hire, one that trains beginners on the basics without the proper context. If diversity is to improve in tech, tech leaders have to stop thinking about diversity on its own and spark innovation around the ways they build teams, bond with different communities, and prepare tomorrow’s workforce.
[1] Eadicicco, Lisa. (July 9, 2014). Silicon Valley Has A Huge Diversity Problem And These Charts Prove It. Retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.com/diversity-in-tech-2014-2014-7
[2] Sumagaysay, Levi. (January 18, 2021). We are learning more about diversity at tech companies, but it isn’t good news. Retrieved from: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/we-are-learning-more-about-diversity-at-tech-companies-but-it-isnt-good-news-11610830395
[3] Guynn, Jessica and Schrotenboer, Brent. (August 20, 2020). Why are there still so few Black executives in America? Retrieved from: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/money/business/2020/08/20/racism-black-america-corporate-america-facebook-apple-netflix-nike-diversity/5557003002/
[4] Bogost, Ian. (June 25, 2019). The Problem With Diversity in Computing. Retrieved from: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/06/tech-computers-are-bigger-problem-diversity/592456/
