The lack of diversity among Google’s workforce has been highlighted by the company’s first diversity report, which reveals that only 30 percent of its staff are female and a mere 2 percent of employees are Black.
The search engine company’s U.S. workforce also comprises 61 percent white people, with Asian staff making up 30 percent, Hispanic people 3 percent and Black staffers just 2 percent of employees.
The data highlights the lack of representation of women and ethnic groups in technology companies, despite a much more diverse customer base for mainstream technology products and services.
“Put simply, Google is not where we want to be when it comes to diversity, and it’s hard to address these kinds of challenges if you’re not prepared to discuss them openly, and with the facts,” acknowledged Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of people operations at Google, in a blog post.
Google has released this, the first of its diversity reports, because the company believes that an open dialogue about diversity issues is the only way to solve them, something critics agree is the right course.
Google believes that tackling diversity in computer science education is the way forward, and has donated over $40 million to organizations aiming to help increase the number of women and girls in science education.
The company is not alone in its efforts to aid science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) diversity in education. Many groups from both the U.K. and globally have been set up to actively encourage girls into STEM education, while the government has worked to remove barriers to women in science.
The problems facing both gender and ethnic diversity in technology are not insurmountable, but no one organization can do it alone, according to Tina Nunno, a vice-president and fellow at Gartner research firm, which makes Google’s release of its data a good step forward in tackling the issues as an industry.
Read the fully story at theguardian.com
