Thursday, May 29, 2014

Diversity in the Valley

When it comes to diversity Google is not where it’s at. Whatever its commitment to liberal politics, Google has been mostly hiring white and Asian males.

70% of the Google workforce is male and 91% is white or Asian.

Time magazine reports:

According to the data, released Wednesday for the first time, 70 percent of the Google workforce is male and 61 percent of its workers are white. And while Asian-Americans make up 30 percent of the workforce, African-Americans and Hispanics make up two and three percent, respectively.

In a statement on the company blog, Google said that it considers racial and gender imbalance to be a problem, and speculates about the underlying causes.

Citing stats from a 2012 National Science Foundation report, Google says that recruitment of people of color and women is difficult because, “Blacks and Hispanics make up under 10 percent of U.S. college grads and collect fewer than 5 percent of degrees in CS majors” and because that only 18 percent of the computer science degrees awarded in the U.S. go to women.

If you like, here’s the graph that Google provided:

 
Google reached this point of minimal diversity because most of the Computer Science degrees are awarded to white and Asian males. Some women qualify-- one wonders how many of them are white or Asian-- but precious few blacks and Hispanics are majoring in the subjects that would suit Google.

In any event, Google feels badly about this. It is investing in advanced minority education.

One suspects that these new disclosures are more about PR than anything else.

Whatever the reason, Google continues to be where it's at.


2 comments:

Dennis said...

One would think the GOOGLE would better spend their money building a network of internet based schools, rather than putting it in to public schools, that provide access to the educational requirement that are needed for advanced placement. I would suggest that this is the next growing market that could have a profound affect on the capability of this nation's citizens to progress and meet the demand of the future. If we do not get away from government run public education we are destined too fail.

Sam L. said...

Students in poor (money, achievement) black schools are not good candidates for computer degrees. Women tend to avoid those degrees. Obviously women must be forced to take those degree studies.