As they face continued calls to diversify their workforces, technology companies are increasingly disclosing demographics and pay information, but for the most part those numbers have shown little progress — and high-profile controversies continue.
“We’ve seen a lot of reasonable pressure on tech companies around [diversity, equity and inclusion] lately,” said Meredith Benton, a consultant with As You Sow and principal at Whistle Stop Capital. “For historical and recent reasons.” These controversies highlight that simply tracking numbers isn’t enough, and that “there are not enough Black and brown people at the highest levels” at the tech companies, said Ellen Pao, who sued storied Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins in 2012 for gender discrimination, during a recent panel discussion. Pao is now chief executive of Project Include, whose goal is to push companies toward “true diversity.
In addition, investor groups are pressuring companies in different sectors through lawsuits and shareholder proposals. Nasdaq Inc. NDAQ, -1.47% has proposed diversity requirements for boards of companies that list on its exchange. And this year, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS, -2.23% will now only underwrite initial public offerings of companies with boards with at least two “diverse” board members.
“That’s a massive shift in a short time, reflecting societal shifting expectations and an increased depth of understanding on the materiality of these issues by investors,” Benton said. Another possible catalyst for change is more minorities starting their own companies. Among Intel’s efforts is investing in tech startups led by women and underrepresented minorities. Since 2015, the company says Intel Capital has invested more than $400 million in such companies.
Twitter vs. Facebook Twitter Inc. TWTR, -1.33% — which is among the seven tech companies on As You Sow’s Top 10 list — has made consistent gains in Black and Latinx/Hispanic employees, as well as women, in its workforce. At the end of 2017, each group made up 3.4% of the company’s U.S. employees. Today, its workforce is 6.5% Black and 5.4% Latinx. Over the same period, the global percentage of women in its ranks rose from 38.4% to 42.6%.
In an unusual move, Twitter announced last year that it would pay its business resource group leaders for the work they do. At most other tech companies, that work goes unpaid. “You can see the power of Black Twitter play out in features like Trending Topics,” Luckie said in an interview with MarketWatch. “You can see what’s happening in your community.”
Hey yo, Zuckerberg, I wants to be a applications architect, foo!
Why was Trump banned?