Response To: Exposing Hidden Biases at Google to Improve Diversity
Unconscious bias is
something that is always at play.
Unconscious bias is what
makes us decide not to go down the dark street, but rather the well lit one with
lots of people. We see this at play on our daily lives―now let's apply the
same concept to people.
The results of many
researches show that even if men or women have the same things on their
resumes, the men will be chosen and hired most of the time.
Now you say they may have
randomized this process so that the man and woman had the same chance of
getting the job, but if this is the case, then why are 70% of tech workers men?
Google say "they are
undertaking a long-term effort to improve these numbers." The first step
to recovery is accepting that there is a problem. This does not mean that
social media companies are not sexist when choosing who to hire, they are, and
at least Google acknowledges it.
Reasoning for not hiring
women with the same accomplishments as men may be more discreet within the high
society of tech workers, sexism may not be as overt as within lower class
workers.
It would be perfectly
reasonable for men to be the majority if women were not interested in these
jobs, but career choice of women does not correlate to the percentage of which are actually hired. In addition, research shows that "diverse teams can be more creative than homogeneous ones."
According to Daniel Borzelleca from Forbes "the female domination of higher education prevails
across all types of schools. It should also be noted that the national
male-female ratio for 18-24 year olds is actually 51-49, meaning there are more
(traditionally) college-aged males than females."
Nationally there was 1% more
men who attend college than women in 2008, but a larger percentage of women graduate
than men. Then why are 70% of the workers for Google male when there are a
larger percentage of female college graduates?
Unfortunately, sexism is
still a large part of our society. As much as we would simply like to wave it
off and pretend like it's not there, it is, and we see it in the variation of
sexes (or lack of) within companies, not just Google but all tech companies
mentioned in the article.
Coincidence? I think not.
