By: Trinity Kim, Yanlin Li, and Ruiyu Liu.
Trinity: Big Tech company Twitter has experienced a breakthrough in raising diversity within its workforce where BIPOC employees have long been underrepresented with an increase of 6.9% to 9.4% of employees in U.S. employees who are Black. The data fails to mention if this hike in numbers can be seen at seniority levels or if this can only be seen in entry-level roles. The underrepresentation of women and minorities has already revealed wider societal consequences like algorithm producing biased results, the technology sector reinforcing wealth and income inequality and the impact of location despite remote and hybrid working being popularised post-pandemic. https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/30/big-tech-diversity-recruiting-silicon-valley/
Yanlin: Technology companies are under increasing pressure to diversify their workforce, which is predominantly white, Asian and male. A recent Fortune reveals of the top 9 tech companies in Silicon Valley showed that, on average, women make up about a third of the workforce. This gap widens as you move higher in the organization, with the best companies showing women in 29% of leadership positions. Overall, companies should make progress in increasing the percentage of female employees, though not in leadership roles. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bonniemarcus/2015/08/12/the-lack-of-diversity-in-tech-is-a-cultural-issue/?sh=646206c379a2
Ruiyu: Women’s underrepresentation in the Internet sector extends beyond the lack of female engineers and programmers to an equally concerning lack of female customers for some of the company’s consumer products. The IT sector may use this moment to improve internal diversity and to rethink the way it markets its global goods. More women would utilize the industry’s products if they were designed to make them feel included, and this would have a multiplier impact on the business and society as a whole if more women used the products. https://hbr.org/2017/12/theres-a-gender-gap-in-internet-usage-closing-it-would-open-up-opportunities-for-everyone