Women represent 31% of IT employees, according to Gartner data. Black workers make up 7.9% of computing and math-related jobs, while Hispanic employees represent 6.8%, according to a 2018 report from the Brookings Institution.
A new study of diversity in the technology industry found companies that made statements of solidarity had 20% fewer Black employees on average than those that didn’t. Asian Americans have the widest gap between their representation in entry-level tech jobs and in leadership, and Asian-American women are the least likely to advance to executive roles. Women executives more commonly have C-level jobs that focus on areas such as HR, marketing or diversity, and those roles are among the least likely to be appointed to corporate boards. The analysis also found that 36% of board directors are women or people of color but that most of those are White women or Asian men.
A similar study by Hired reveals that for every dollar a white man in the tehc industry was paid last year, a black woman in the same role made 90 cents. They’re not alone – black men have lost a little ground since 2019, although women have improved slightly – but all are still unequal.
But how about the impact of technology – some data about dating sites: A 2020 study by Pew reported that 57 percent of female dating-site users ages 18 to 34 said that someone had sent them a sexually explicit message or unsolicited image. Six in 10 women under age 35 said that someone had continued to contact them after they said they were not interested, and 44 percent said that someone on a dating site had called them an offensive name.
I can’t get past the copious amounts of data that say investments in companies of any size addressing these issues out perform. This isn’t just about hiring either, but about the entire lifecycle. Skills development, ensuring an inclusive culture, ensuring equity in the workforce, and protecting those who need it.
If I said you could outperform by 20%, would you do it? Well, you can outperform by 20%….