4 ms·

True, California in general is pretty diverse. I believe it's "majority-minority", but what about the folks who make up the "culture" of the valley? The workers

True, California in general is pretty diverse. I believe it's "majority-minority", but what about the folks who make up the "culture" of the valley? The workers, VCs, professors, etc. Based on the diversity reports from the big tech companies it seems like they are still lacking. Even when it comes to female engineers there is a lack of representation. I remember a twitter thread a few weeks ago that lamented the fact that activity trackers did not have a "pregnant mode" to account for the extra calories and (perhaps) lesser physical activity of pregnant women.

tomnipotent 8y ago
> Based on the diversity reports from the big tech companies it seems like they are still lacking. Lacking compared to what? When comparing to the diversity of the U.S. or even California, most tech companies way over-index.
ThrowawayR2 8y ago
> ...what about the folks who make up the "culture" of the valley? The workers, VCs, professors, etc. Based on the diversity reports from the big tech companies it seems like they are still lacking. How so? Asians and Indians are very well represented among those categories in SV and the other tech hubs as well.
nilkn 8y ago
What's the "correct" level of diversity, out of curiosity? The US is ~75% phenotypically white (including white Americans with Hispanic or Latin heritage) and about ~62% white of European descent.
- barrow-rider 8y ago
  In the 2010 census middle eastern (Arab/Persian/N African) also counted as white.
nostrademons 8y ago
Tech boardrooms are way less diverse than the general population but way more diverse than the business culture in the rest of the country. Among the MAGA (4 most valuable tech companies - Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon), there are 2 Indian CEOs and 1 openly gay CEO. Alphabet's board of directors [1] is about as diverse as the NYTimes board of directors [2], and way more so than say Coca-Cola's board of directors [3]. Engineering is largely male (90/10 or so) but professional employment within tech companies as a whole is generally quite mixed (60/40). As a multiracial Asian/white entrepreneur I don't feel unrepresented at all - hell, I'm practically a stereotype. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/board.asp?privcapId=29096 https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/board.asp?... [2] https://www.nytco.com/board-of-directors/ https://www.nytco.com/board-of-directors/ [3] https://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/board-of-directors https://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/board-of-direct...
kitsunesoba 8y ago
Based on my own personal experience, the underrepresentation faced by women by tech isn’t necessarily all about companies not hiring women, at least when it comes to engineering — from what I’ve seen, the stream of female candidates is extremely weak (even more so for small to mid size companies), with what few that do come through not being a good match for the position. Either the majority of potential candidates aren’t applying or they just don’t exist. The only way I can see this getting corrected is for schools to start encouraging girls to get into technical subjects and provide better support for those who take interest or for companies to provide programs to educate women into technical roles (imagine a high quality code boot camp, except company run or sponsored).
- nostrademons 8y ago
  In my experience female engineering candidates are generally strong but not very numerous. As in, when you find one she's often as good or better than your best male candidates, but you won't find very many. This is consistent with the rest of the pipeline being a high-pass filter: you have to be good to put up with the bullshit female engineers get in school and junior jobs, and so everyone that's not washes out of tech by mid- to senior-levels. Also, if you do find a good female candidate, she's probably going to get hired by Google or Facebook and accept their offer instead. They offer less risk for more pay and less attitude, which is an attractive bargain to many people.

tomnipotent 8y ago

> Based on the diversity reports from the big tech companies it seems like they are still lacking. Lacking compared to what? When comparing to the diversity of the U.S. or even California, most tech companies way over-index.

ThrowawayR2 8y ago

> ...what about the folks who make up the "culture" of the valley? The workers, VCs, professors, etc. Based on the diversity reports from the big tech companies it seems like they are still lacking. How so? Asians and Indians are very well represented among those categories in SV and the other tech hubs as well.

nilkn 8y ago

What's the "correct" level of diversity, out of curiosity? The US is ~75% phenotypically white (including white Americans with Hispanic or Latin heritage) and about ~62% white of European descent.

barrow-rider 8y ago
In the 2010 census middle eastern (Arab/Persian/N African) also counted as white.

nostrademons 8y ago

Tech boardrooms are way less diverse than the general population but way more diverse than the business culture in the rest of the country. Among the MAGA (4 most valuable tech companies - Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon), there are 2 Indian CEOs and 1 openly gay CEO. Alphabet's board of directors [1] is about as diverse as the NYTimes board of directors [2], and way more so than say Coca-Cola's board of directors [3]. Engineering is largely male (90/10 or so) but professional employment within tech companies as a whole is generally quite mixed (60/40). As a multiracial Asian/white entrepreneur I don't feel unrepresented at all - hell, I'm practically a stereotype. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/board.asp?privcapId=29096 https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/board.asp?... [2] https://www.nytco.com/board-of-directors/ https://www.nytco.com/board-of-directors/ [3] https://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/board-of-directors https://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/board-of-direct...

kitsunesoba 8y ago

Based on my own personal experience, the underrepresentation faced by women by tech isn’t necessarily all about companies not hiring women, at least when it comes to engineering — from what I’ve seen, the stream of female candidates is extremely weak (even more so for small to mid size companies), with what few that do come through not being a good match for the position. Either the majority of potential candidates aren’t applying or they just don’t exist. The only way I can see this getting corrected is for schools to start encouraging girls to get into technical subjects and provide better support for those who take interest or for companies to provide programs to educate women into technical roles (imagine a high quality code boot camp, except company run or sponsored).

nostrademons 8y ago
In my experience female engineering candidates are generally strong but not very numerous. As in, when you find one she's often as good or better than your best male candidates, but you won't find very many. This is consistent with the rest of the pipeline being a high-pass filter: you have to be good to put up with the bullshit female engineers get in school and junior jobs, and so everyone that's not washes out of tech by mid- to senior-levels. Also, if you do find a good female candidate, she's probably going to get hired by Google or Facebook and accept their offer instead. They offer less risk for more pay and less attitude, which is an attractive bargain to many people.