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Not all tech workers are programmers, not all programmers have CS degrees. This problem cannot be boiled down to such a simple metric. I've talked to a number
by Uehreka 10y ago
Not all tech workers are programmers, not all programmers have CS degrees. This problem cannot be boiled down to such a simple metric.
I've talked to a number of women in my office, almost all of whom have expressed that they felt like they had to overcome obstacles while growing up as a woman who was interested in technology. That when they made mistakes, they were told "maybe you should do something else" while their male counterparts were told "just try again, I'm sure you'll get it!" This may not be something Google, Facebook or Apple can unilaterally fix. We need to fix society, and that starts with privileged people simply accepting that this is a problem, even if it doesn't have a simple solution (although donating to organizations like BlackGirlsCode and GirlDevelopIt can certainly help).
With that out of the way, there are real problems that women and minorities face in the workplace when diversity is ignored: abuse, harassment, being passed over for promotion in favor of less qualified white men. When the workplace is composed of 90% white men, they get to set the norms of behavior and culture. If they do so without thinking about the other 10%, they will hurt and eventually lose most of those people. When they get to the point where their workplace is 99% white and male, they may muse "hmm, I guess women and minorities just aren't that interested in tech."
Someone may inevitably ask me: "alright smartypants, what are these 'white male behaviors' we're so guilty of?" To be honest, I'm not the one you need to hear it from. You need to talk to women and underrepresented minorities in your life about their experiences in the workplace (in tech or in other fields). If you don't know many women or minorities in white collar fields, and (this is very important) you're willing to patiently listen without butting in, I recommend following ericajoy and jennschiffer on twitter.