US-based Technology company Apple Inc has recently announced a $50 million donation to bring more diversity in the Technology sector which is grappling with skewed diversity ratios.
The company’s annual shareholder meeting also emphasized on the stark lack of diversity in Silicon Valley. It is during the session that Apple Inc representatives unveiled that the company will support the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the National Center for Women and Information Technology to help more women, minorities and veterans find work in tech. The company is looking at offering scholarships, training and paid internships to selected candidates.
As with any other player in the technology sector in the US, Apple Inc is dominated by White and Asian male workers and the ratio gets skewed to this homogenous group as you go up in the ranks in both management and engineering divisions.
Apple CEO Tim Cook last year mentioned that diversity ratio at his company is not satisfactory and promised to bring in more minority groups as well as women into the company’s corporate ranks.
Intel Inc had been another forefront runner in ensuring technology sector shows more diversity with a $300 million investment plan.
But these measures are far less when compared with the present diversity data, especially on women recruitment. According to the industry group Code.org, computing jobs will more than double by 2020. If women continue to leave the field, an already dire shortage of qualified tech workers will grow worse. Last summer, Google, Facebook, Apple and other big tech companies released figures showing that men outnumbered women 4 to 1 or more in their technical sectors.
Meanwhile a report by investment firm MSCI Inc has noted that companies that invest in gender diversity at high levels are less likely to fall prey to fraud, corruption, and other scandals. The group analysed thousands of companies worldwide and found that the companies with more diversity showed lesser incidences of bribe-taking, conflicts with regulators, and tensions with shareholders.
“The resulting data set showed a clear pattern between having higher than mandated percentages of women on boards and fewer governance-related controversies,” the analysts wrote.
While all the existing research on board diversity has shown that putting more women in top jobs produces an economic upside for companies, this new research points out how the companies are protected from downfall, thanks to its diversity.
Some European countries have forced gender diversity legally on companies that have been slow on the uptake. But the US has been showing significantly lesser momentum in advancing diversity in its corporate culture.
The company’s annual shareholder meeting also emphasized on the stark lack of diversity in Silicon Valley. It is during the session that Apple Inc representatives unveiled that the company will support the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the National Center for Women and Information Technology to help more women, minorities and veterans find work in tech. The company is looking at offering scholarships, training and paid internships to selected candidates.
As with any other player in the technology sector in the US, Apple Inc is dominated by White and Asian male workers and the ratio gets skewed to this homogenous group as you go up in the ranks in both management and engineering divisions.
Apple CEO Tim Cook last year mentioned that diversity ratio at his company is not satisfactory and promised to bring in more minority groups as well as women into the company’s corporate ranks.
Intel Inc had been another forefront runner in ensuring technology sector shows more diversity with a $300 million investment plan.
But these measures are far less when compared with the present diversity data, especially on women recruitment. According to the industry group Code.org, computing jobs will more than double by 2020. If women continue to leave the field, an already dire shortage of qualified tech workers will grow worse. Last summer, Google, Facebook, Apple and other big tech companies released figures showing that men outnumbered women 4 to 1 or more in their technical sectors.
Meanwhile a report by investment firm MSCI Inc has noted that companies that invest in gender diversity at high levels are less likely to fall prey to fraud, corruption, and other scandals. The group analysed thousands of companies worldwide and found that the companies with more diversity showed lesser incidences of bribe-taking, conflicts with regulators, and tensions with shareholders.
“The resulting data set showed a clear pattern between having higher than mandated percentages of women on boards and fewer governance-related controversies,” the analysts wrote.
While all the existing research on board diversity has shown that putting more women in top jobs produces an economic upside for companies, this new research points out how the companies are protected from downfall, thanks to its diversity.
Some European countries have forced gender diversity legally on companies that have been slow on the uptake. But the US has been showing significantly lesser momentum in advancing diversity in its corporate culture.
