The Global Climate of Representation
Diversity and inclusion are hot button topics in our current environment, especially in the tech industry. Its urgency and visibility on a global level is apparent in movements such as #oscarssowhite and #blacklivesmatter. I’ve always aligned with movements that speak of empowerment, equality, feminism and justice. With Netflix’s cancellation of the Patriot Act, I feel that we’ve lost a vital voice representing the perspective of first-generation South Asian Americans. That led me to start thinking about what representation means to me as a woman of colour, a woman of Pakistani origin, a mother and especially one in the tech space.
What does diversity mean to me
As a working woman of colour in the United States, diversity has always been on my mind, but lately, as the political landscape has shifted in the US, diversity or the lack thereof, in mainstream media and the professional world has taken a front seat for me. Being one of only two women in a leadership role in my organization within my company (which is one of the more diverse organizations I’ve been a part of), it became apparent to me that in order to see more change it’s important to speak about it. I’ve had a front-row view of how diversity is lacking, not just in my own experience, but through stories of others as well.
Research shows that having people from varied backgrounds actually helps organizations in a number of ways. Having LGBTQI individuals, women, men, people from different countries actually improves the way that businesses perform. That’s because people from different backgrounds have different life experiences. And because of those different life experiences, they have different thoughts, ideas and offerings for any business.
It’s an amazing way to improve every aspect of the business and to create a win-win situation for all of the people that are part of it. The businesses will see better growth and a stronger bottom line. The people themselves get a job that will benefit themselves and their families which could change the trajectory for generations to come. And of course, consumers reap the benefits of those new, improved and unique products that are being developed. Having worked at startups based in Germany, China, Pakistan and San Francisco, I’ve been able to see firsthand how this entire process works and how it helps others, and I know how important it is to continue it.
The Political Atmosphere
Right now, our society is at a crossroads and we’re seeing divisive action between people of different backgrounds. It is vital that the tech industry continues to push the envelope forward. By pushing for diversity, representation and inclusion, it’s possible for us to make an impact and to start taking a stand in ways that other industries will be compelled to follow. It’s time for us to help flip the script. But it’s not just about encouraging additional representation.
It’s also important for companies to update their hiring practices and equity policies because it sends a message to those within our society. It tells those who live throughout the country and around the world that they are just as valued and just as important to bring to the table. When you look at how diversity influences businesses you can see the positive effects. They have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
Inclusion and Leadership Balance
When it comes to balancing out the leadership in any organization or company, it’s important to look at inclusion and equity and the way that different types of people can be brought into the fold. But how does this happen? It happens by making sure that an organization as a whole is well representative of the society that it exists in. The more diverse the company is at the lowest levels, the more diverse it will naturally become at the highest levels. If you add diversity at the lowest levels of a company that does not mean you can completely ignore what’s happening to diversity at the top levels.
While bringing individuals with diverse backgrounds into the organization is a great start, it’s important to amplify that voice of diversity. There is still far too large a gap between representation at the entry-level positions and highest-level positions of any company. While those with diverse backgrounds may occupy the low to mid-level jobs in a facility, they’re highly unlikely to occupy the C-Suite or even high level (but below C-Suite) positions. Balancing out leadership leads to even more diversity in the entry-level regions of the organization, and continues to improve representation.
Current Representation in Big Tech
So, if representation and inclusion are so important, especially in the tech industry, what does the situation look like now? Well, the truth is there is not a whole lot of diversity in Big Tech. While organizations like Facebook, Twitter and Amazon have long touted diversity and talked about how they would implement it, it seems that they haven’t done as well in this regard as we would have hoped.
Facebook currently has about 9% representation of Black individuals and almost 11% representation of Hispanic individuals. These all represent the non-technical positions but not necessarily leadership roles. In leadership roles, the representation of women is approximately 34.2%. Their goal is to have 50% representation of underrepresented people by 2024.
Twitter currently has female representation at approximately 42.3% and less than 1% non-binary. In the US the representation of minorities is still a work in progress with 41.1% of the workforce being white, 28.2% Asian, 6% black, 5.1% Latinex, 3.7% multiracial and 0.3% indigenous. Twitter’s vision is to make sure that at least 50% of their global workforce is women and at least 25% of their US workforce is underrepresented minorities by 2025.
Amazon has already started to work on their diversity, with their global gender representation at 42.7% women. Their managerial representation is still low, however, at 27.5% women. In the US the race and ethnicity representation overall is approximately 15.4% Asian, 26.5% Black, 18.5% Hispanic, 1.3% Native American, 3.6% multiracial and 34.7% white. In managerial roles, however, this representation is slightly lower.
Why Representation Matters
When I was starting out in my career there were very few women in leadership roles in my industry (gaming) and even fewer who looked like me. While I had mentors that helped guide me, many of them women, I always knew that their journey wasn’t exactly the same. They weren’t quite like me and didn’t know exactly what I was experiencing.
People need to see someone who looks like them in a leadership role because it encourages them to achieve the same but also there are likely to be more shared experiences you can learn from. We haven’t quite reached a point of “equality” when it comes to gender, ethnicity, LQBTQI representation but we have certainly started to change that narrative, and that’s a step in the right direction. With people like Alexis Ohanian (founder of Reddit) stepping down from the board to make space for the voice of a Black leader is a telling sign of the times and that we are starting to see change.
Resources:
https://about.fb.com/news/2020/07/facebook-2020-diversity-report/
https://careers.twitter.com/en/tweep-life/diversity.html
https://www.aboutamazon.com/working-at-amazon/diversity-and-inclusion/our-workforce-data
