diversity
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Google hires former Intel exec as its new VP of diversity
Google has been investing big money and launching various projects to diversify its workforce, but its latest diversity report shows that it still has a long way to go. While female personnel now compose 31 percent of its employee population, they only make up 20 percent of the company's tech workforce. In addition, only one percent of its tech roles are filled by Black Googlers, who make up a mere five percent of the company's full employee count. Sure, the number of women in tech and the number of Hispanic Googlers grew one percent from last year's, but it's clear that the company is still overwhelmingly white and male.
Google says it would cost too much to gather wage gap data
The Department of Labor will have to keep bugging Google for the salary records it's been asking for, because the tech titan keeps refusing to hand them over. Those records might be able to prove once and for all whether Mountain View truly pays women a lot less than it does men. If you'll recall, the Labor Department is accusing the big G of "systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce" and is suing the company for its salary information. Well, the company has just told a federal court that it won't gather the info the DoL wants because it would be much too expensive.
UploadVR sued for ‘rampant’ sexism, general awfulness
UploadVR is the workplace that has everything, at least if you enjoy walking around an office with condom wrappers on the floor. That's just one of many charges being leveled against it by its former director of digital and social media in a recent lawsuit. She alleges that the company was a hotbed of "rampant" sexism and that its co-founders created a toxic working environment for women.
Twitch dedicates May 26th to celebrating diversity
On May 26th, video streaming platform Twitch will celebrate a site-wide holiday called "TwitchUnity" that celebrates diversity and inclusivity. It plans to highlight channels on its front page that "exemplify a positive culture" that day, and it's encouraging streamers to generate relevant discussions. The platform is also releasing an official emoji for the event, which you can see in the image above. If you want to personally support the effort, you can buy the special t-shirt Twitch is releasing for the event or check out the dance-a-thon it's conducting. All proceeds from both efforts will be donated to Amnesty International's fight for human rights around the globe.
YouTube will fight fake news by offering workshops to teens
Google is already flagging fake news, but it knows that isn't always enough. People need to recognize what fake news is, too. To that end, its YouTube wing just launched an Internet Citizens program that will teach UK teens to spot fake news through workshops. The day-long gatherings will encourage teens to check facts, escape "social bubbles," deal with hate speech responsibly and use reporting tools. YouTube began the program in Liverpool on April 21st, but it plans to swing by youth clubs in other UK cities over the months ahead.
Google says its own analysis shows 'no gender pay gap'
In a new post on pay equity, Google VP Eileen Naughton says the company was "taken aback" by the US Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) accusation that it paid women less than men, especially since the regulator gave no data to back up the claim. To counter it, the company supplied its own study that it called "extremely scientific and robust," showing that women and men are paid equally at the firm with a 95 percent confidence rating.
Uber is just as white and male as every other tech company
Uber is aware that its culture needs to change, and that means understanding what its culture is. To that end, the ridesharing giant has posted its first-ever diversity report... and it's clear that the company suffers from the same homogeneity problems as its tech industry peers. Women represent 36.1 percent of its global workforce, and that number plunges to 15.4 percent when you look at technical roles. And not surprisingly, there's not a lot of cultural variety. In the US, just under half (49.8 percent) of Uber employees are white, while 30.9 percent are Asian. And those figures are exaggerated at the top -- 22 percent of executives are women, and 76.7 percent of them are white.
Google and Howard University partner for more diversity in tech
Diversity (or the lack thereof) at Silicon Valley companies like Google has been a hot topic in the tech industry of late -- just about every major tech company out there now is publishing diversity numbers and pledging to make their workforces more than just white men. Google today has just announced a new partnership with Howard University to help improve its own diversity. As Google VP Bonita Stewart (herself a Howard alum) writes, the new "Howard West" program is a residency at Google's Mountain View campus for black computer science majors.
Intel meets some of its key diversity goals
Intel's diversity push still looks to be largely on track, and it's now hitting some of its most important milestones. The chip maker's newly published 2016 Diversity & Inclusion report reveals that Intel has met all of its pay and promotion equality goals in the US -- both women and underrepresented minority should have the same incomes and chances of advancement as anyone else. Intel also says it met its broader diverse retention goal, keeping a better-than-parity number of those underrepresented workers.
Tesla engineer sues over sexist workplace culture (updated)
If it wasn't already evident that Silicon Valley's issues with sexist culture extend beyond Uber, it is now. Tesla engineer AJ Vandermeyden has revealed that she's suing her employer over allegations that the electric car maker ignored complaints of discrimination and "pervasive harassment." She says she was paid less than men she replaced, and that she and fellow female engineers weren't given promotions even though they were at least as qualified as men. The harassment, meanwhile, included "inappropriate language, whistling and catcalls," according to the lawsuit.
Airbnb's rehabilitation tour doesn't end with a Super Bowl ad
Airbnb's rehabilitation tour came to a dramatic climax on the evening of Feb. 5th, 2017. In between downs of the 51st Super Bowl, as dozens of beefy men slammed their bodies together to the cheers of millions, Airbnb aired an advertisement presenting itself as a compassionate, socially conscious company. "#WeAccept," Airbnb declared over a slideshow of stoic faces, most of them people of color. Light piano music accompanied the white text, which read, "We believe no matter who you are, where you're from, who you love or who you worship, we all belong. The world is more beautiful the more you accept."
Sammus is somewhere between nerdcore and afrofuturism
Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo used to get the same question every time she set down the mic and stepped off the stage. She came to expect it after performing in crowded bars, big music festivals or comic book stores, and the question usually came from a well-meaning stranger or new fan of her music. "Who makes your beats for you?" This would happen right after she'd screamed into the mic that she was Sammus, a producer and rapper, and that everything she just did on stage was her work. The question would come in different forms -- "Where's your boyfriend?" was another staple -- but the sentiment was the same. People assumed Sammus didn't produce her own music.
Twitter met its diversity goals, but still has work to do
Eighteen months ago, facing criticism as part of an overwhelmingly homogenous tech industry, Twitter gave itself some clear goals for hiring a more diverse workforce in 2016. Now that the year has wrapped up, Twitter has released its first diversity report since the somewhat puzzling hire of Jeffrey Siminoff as VP of diversity and inclusion. And while the company is still largely white and male, the results are a promising step in the right direction.
Oracle faces Labor Department lawsuit over job discrimination
Google isn't the only Silicon Valley staple facing a lawsuit over the fairness of its hiring practices. The US Department of Labor has sued Oracle for allegedly conducting discriminatory employment practices. The enterprise tech giant is accused of paying white male workers more than minorities and women in similar positions, and of favoring Asian people for "technical roles." The lawsuit isn't coming out of the blue, though -- it's really the culmination of a battle that started when an investigation began in 2014.
Facebook's diversity push hampered by its own hiring practices
2016 was supposed to be the year that Facebook took the lead in positive hiring practices and show the rest of the industry what a truly diverse workforce looked like. To that end the company instituted a points-based incentive program the year prior, geared towards bringing on more hispanic, black and female workers. So far, it hasn't worked out too well (no, Peter Thiel doesn't count). And now it appears we finally know why.
Google sued by US government for not sharing employee salaries
The U.S Department of Labor is suing Google after the company declined to share employment data with the government. In its complaint, the department claims that Google refused to reveal employee salaries and benefits to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) during a routine anti-discrimination audit. The OFCCP is now seeking a court order to force the tech giant to comply.
'Hidden Figures' is the uplifting NASA story we need right now
Tales of the space race between the US and Russia inevitably focus on the white male scientists and astronauts who seemingly did the impossible. But it's important to remember that those folks had plenty of support from people of all backgrounds. Hidden Figures, which hits theaters in a limited release on Christmas, is the rare opportunity to tell one such story: how three black women helped NASA launch the first American into orbit.
Pinterest lowers its goal for female engineer hires
Pinterest aimed to make itself a role model for diversity in tech in 2016, but the year didn't quite work out that way... and the company is setting its sights lower as a result. The social site reports that it increased the number of women in its workforce to 26 percent in 2016, but it only increased the ratio of engineers to 22 percent -- far short of the 30 percent it wanted. It's now aiming for 25 percent in 2017. While the team still wants to get to 30 percent, it says it's "likely going to take more than 12 months" to reach that goal.
The next great indie game is about the dragon apocalypse
There's no such thing as an "overnight success." Sure, some folks get lucky with a snappy catchphrase or a $30 Chewbacca mask and they experience a wave of sudden, unplanned popularity, but generally, people don't achieve their dreams over the course of a single evening. Rich Siegel is living proof of this myth. He's an independent game developer who's been quietly working on his dream title, EarthNight, for years. It's a beautiful, hand-painted platformer about the dragon apocalypse. Players careen across the backs of massive, snake-like dragons as they soar high above the planet, all while an original chiptune soundtrack pounds away in the background. EarthNight has received some scattered press, but it's not a household name. When it finally lands on PlayStation 4 and PC, it will probably be a surprise to most people, another indie game in a sea of new releases. However, there's something special about EarthNight. It has all the trappings of a sleeper hit: It's gorgeous, unique and whimsical, and it feels fresh even as it embodies the nostalgia of classic platformers. It has built-in Twitch streaming capabilities, it's a blast to watch and it features permadeath, which means once players die, they have to start the entire game over. EarthNight inherently caters to competitive people and repeat plays. If any indie game is going to be an "overnight success" in 2017, this is it.
Apple's diversity numbers haven't moved much in a year
It's been a year where tech companies have been pledging their fealty to the concept of diversity, but backed that up with very little action. Recode has unearthed a document that Apple sent to America's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that might as well have been an A4 print-out of a "¯\_(ツ)_/¯." For all the talk, the company is still miles away from achieving parity between its white, male executives and everyone else. In fact, only 20 out of Apple's 107 top executives are women, and only five are defined as coming from an underrepresented minority.
