Diversity and Inclusion

It’s no secret that there is a pronounced gender gap in technology fields. In 2014, 70% of the employees at the top tech companies in Silicon Valley, such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, were male. In technical roles, this phenomenon is even more pronounced; for example, only 10% of the technical workforce at Twitter is female.

But things haven’t always been this way. The numbers of enrollments among men and women in computer science were on their way toward parity in the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1984, 37% of computer science graduates were women, but those numbers began to drop dramatically in the middle of the decade. By 2016, that number had been whittled down to 18%. This dip in the 1980s has created a chasm that the past 30 years hasn’t been able to overcome—and the dude-centric computer marketing campaigns of that time may be to blame.

Diverse teams are smarter and more creative

• According to Scott E. Page, professor of complex systems, political science and economics at the University of Michigan: “Diverse groups of people bring to organizations more and different ways of seeing a problem and, thus, faster/better ways of solving it.”

• At Intel, CEO Brian Krzanich has said: “A fully diverse and inclusive workplace is fundamental to our ability to innovate and deliver business results.”

Why diversity in tech is important?

• Diverse teams are smarter and more creative.

• Diverse companies perform better.

• Companies are losing out on great talent (when they close themselves to one race/gender only).

• Diverse companies can better serve a diverse user base.

• It’s the right thing to do.