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It's been only a couple of weeks since Google released the diversity numbers on its workforce, and there's been a lot of talk since then about why the tech giant and others in the industry don't really reflect the American population as a whole.

A well-written piece today in Mother Jones

 offers some provocative thoughts on what can be done about it — and schools could play a big role.
So, to catch up, 

 of its 46,000-member global workforce that put some data behind stereotypes about the tech giant. And turns out, that stereotype is largely true: Google's workforce is heavily white and male.


Thirty percent of Google's employees worldwide are women, according to the figures released in May, and just 17 percent of technical staffers are female.

Racially and ethnically, Google's U.S.-based staff is 61 percent white, 30 percent Asian, 3 percent Hispanic, and 2 percent African-American.

So, how does that stack up against the U.S. workforce as a whole? Here are the comparable figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor:


Laszlo Bock, Google's senior vice president of people operations 

 that there are a slew of reasons why Google and other tech companies struggle to reflect the demographics of the country:


isn't the only tech company facing this challenge

, and it certainly isn't the only one to lay the blame, at least in part, on a "pipeline problem." The argument is that companies can only hire the people who apply for jobs, and in tech, those people tend to be male and white.
Today 

 suggests that part of the solution might be quite simple: start introducing coding and computer skills to children early.


Raja, an editor at the publication, also suggests changing the message on STEM, so that girls will embrace science, technology, engineering and math rather than be repelled.

Raja cited evidence that tweaking the way computer science is introduced can make a difference:

Sure, there's an argument that it's critical for the workforce of the country's leading technology companies to reflect, well, the demographics of the country. But as Raja points out, it's also just good for the corporate bottom line.

Education News

Juana Summers

Author

Companies can only hire the people who apply for jobs. In tech, those people tend to be male and white.

Can schools solve the tech industry's pipeline problem?

Go Deeper.

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