Communications of the ACM
Why Can't Tech Fix Its Gender Problem?
The preponderance of women on microchip production lines from the 1960s to early 1980s helped keep Silicon Valley's factory wages among the lowest in the country.
Credit: Getty Images
Despite the tech sector's great wealth and loudly self-proclaimed corporate commitments to the rights of women, LGBTQ+ people, and racial minorities, tech remains mostly a straight, white man's world. The proportion of women in technical roles at large companies remains a painfully low 25%.
What really lies at the core of tech's gender problem is money.
The technology industry has generated significant, and sometimes enormous, personal fortunes. Most of this money has gone to men. Only two women currently appear on the list of tech's 20 richest people.
Venture capital investment has been and remains the tech ecosystem's least diverse domain. White and Asian men make up 78% of those responsible for investing decisions and manage 93% of venture dollars overall. While there are now more female-led investment funds, nearly all are white.
The lack of investor and founder diversity has far-reaching consequences.
From MIT Technology Review
View Full Article
No entries found