Diversity & Inclusion in the Tech Industry
That Time When Women Stopped Coding
What occured during the same time as the beginning of the decline of women in computer sciene?
Why does it matter that males had been playing on computers growing up?
families were much more likely to buy computers for boys than for girls — even when their girls were really interested in computers.
This was a big deal when those kids got to college. As personal computers became more common, computer science professors increasingly assumed that their students had grown up playing with computers at home.
Employee breakdown of key technology companies
What three take-a-ways do you have looking at this data?
- Prioritize the audience’s understanding over the producer’s ease:
- Consider reading time in meetings
- Don’t underestimate the audience
** Why diversity matters to your tech company**
When are diversity efforts most successful?
Diversity efforts are most successful when they’re driven by a commitment from company leaders. And meaningful commitment requires leaders to understand why diversity matters. At Paradigm, we spend a lot of time brainstorming with CEOs and other company leaders about what is or should be driving their diversity and inclusion efforts
Why do diverse companies perform better?
Given that diverse teams are smarter and more creative than homogeneous ones, it is unsurprising that a wealth of research shows a strong correlation between diverse organizations and positive financial outcomes. In a 2011 study of diversity in the top firms in Standard & Poor’s Composite 1500 list, researchers found “female representation in top management leads to an increase of $42 million in firm value.”
Give an example of how a diverse company can serve a diverse user base or vise-versa.
When Tracy Chou of Pinterest shared the company’s demographic information last year, she explained: “We only stand to improve the quality and impact of our products if the people building them are representative of the user base and reflect the same diversity of demography, culture, life experiences and interests that makes our community so vibrant.”
Walker & Company CEO Tristan Walker recently observed: “If more black people were building features or striking partnerships at Twitter, perhaps they’d have a great idea” for more effectively engaging black users.
Things I want to know more about
Learned more about Diversity and inclusion.