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 triggered an instant backlash, but they also raise more questions about the tech industry's male-dominated culture and spotlight the challenges women in tech face.
Ironically, Nadella made these remarks Thursday 

women who helped pioneer computer programming

Toward the end of an interview with Maria Klawe, a member of Microsoft's board, Nadella was asked what advice he would give women who were hesitant to ask for a raise.

"It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along," he said. "And that, I think, might be one of the additional 'superpowers' that, quite frankly, women who don't ask for a raise have because that's good karma. It'll come back."


In other words, Nadella advised women to trust a system that 

. People jumped onto Twitter to criticize Nadella's comments:


 Microsoft employees, saying he was going to the conference "to learn and to listen" about the growing role women play in tech. Last night, he 

 employees that his comments forced him to learn a lesson.


But this isn't the first time the tech industry has acknowledged it has a long way to go in terms of equal rights for women.


The tech industry's diversity problem isn't a new one. In June, NPR's Elise Hu reported on how 

 from Facebook, Google and Yahoo compare to the overall workforce:
Microsoft released its numbers just last week, becoming one of the last major tech companies to do so. Its 

 is 71 percent male, 29 percent female. In tech jobs specifically, it's about 83 percent to 17 percent.
It took tech companies years to admit these disparities. A 

 for two years just to get the big tech companies to release the numbers.


For women who do get hired by the biggest tech companies, they enter an industry that's fraught with a culture of sexism.


At Techweek Chicago this past June, Elise 

 that organizers sent out a party invite for a "Black Tie Rave" featuring "beautiful, scantily clad women." 

 showed up earlier that week at a tech conference in Berlin.
Last year, after an all-night hackathon at TechCrunch Disrupt, Australian programmers 

 called Titstare. "Titstare is an app where you take photos of yourself staring at tits," Jethro Batts explained. He went on to say, "I think this is the breast hack ever."
Following this incident, Elise 

 on the tech industry's sometimes sexist "brogrammer" culture:


While the environment at tech companies presents women with more obstacles to getting paid more, women in general are often uncomfortable asking for a raise.

 about this issue. Many said they weren't motivated to ask for more until male colleagues, husbands or boyfriends encouraged them. Most women responded that they didn't negotiate the terms of their first contract because they didn't know that they could.
Even when women do negotiate, they often ask for much less than they should. 

, Emily Amanatullah, an assistant professor of management at the University of Texas, found that women asked for an average of $7,000 less than men.


Nadella's comments don't help this insecurity. When Elise talked to women in tech, many suggested that the idea that women don't belong in the industry starts at a young age.

Changing this perception will be an uphill battle for women in tech, but in order for tech companies to get on board, they need to do more than release diversity numbers.

Samantha Raphelson is a digital news intern at NPR.org. You can reach out to her on 

, where she is often tweeting obsessively about the Foo Fighters and the Phillies.

Science

Samantha Raphelson

Author

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's comments on women asking for raises triggered an instant backlash, but they also raise more questions about the tech industry's male-dominated culture and spotlight the challenges women in tech face.

Microsoft CEO Nadella's remarks add to tech's sexism problem

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