Silicon Valley persists in lack of diversity, write Democrats

Three Democratic U.S. representatives from California published an op-ed in the daily newspaper of Silicon Valley, the San Jose Mercury News, to take the tech industry to task for its continually low employment rates of women and ethnic minorities.

Representatives Anna Eshoo, Zoe Lofgren, and Barbara Lee wrote that, “as major companies such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn have disclosed their workforce and leadership diversity data, it is painfully clear the sector faces a persistent and troubling deficit when it comes to women, African-Americans and Latinos.”

Google, for instance, is 70 percent male, 61 percent white and 30 percent Asian. At the same time, African-Americans comprise just two percent, and Hispanics just three percent of Google’s workforce.

At Facebook, recently released data show much the same pattern. Tech jobs are 85 percent male, and 94 percent white and Asian. At management level, they are 77 percent male and 93 percent white and Asian.

It’s good that these companies have released this data – because transparency promotes fairness – but ultimately the goal is diversity. As Eshoo, Lofgren and Lee point out:

“… award-winning scientist Scott Page, in his book "The Difference," mathematically proved that diversity makes for greater success in a venture. Diversity is not just an American value, it's good for business.”

Tech workforce diversity: Recognizing problem is the first step to solving it (San Jose Mercury, Jul. 7, 2014)

Making Google a workplace for everyone (Google diversity report)

Building a More Diverse Facebook (Facebook internal report, Jun. 25, 2014)