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A high-profile sacking at Google has exposed tech’s ‘women’ problem, warns Alix O’Neill Does sexism really bug Silicon Valley? G R E I G A N G U S B Y I L L U S T R A T I O N A survey of more than 200 senior women in tech found 60 per cent had experienced unwanted sexual advances When my mother was at school, there wasn’t much in the way of careers advice, though she was presented with a few options deemed suitable for a young woman about to enter the workforce: nurse or teacher. (Alternatively, in 1960s Ireland there was always convent life to fall back on.) Thankfully, I had a slightly more substantial list to consider as I prepared for university, but the suggested professions were still traditionally female roles. Seventeen years later, the gender debate rages on. Recently, Google software engineer James Damore ignited an international firestorm after writing a tenpage leaked memo arguing that women are, in aggregate, biologically less suited than men to engineering and leadership positions. The internet giant swiftly sacked Damore, with chief executive Sundar Pichai claiming that his former employee had breached the company’s ‘basic values’. Although Damore’s remarks were condemned by many, there are plenty who support his view that ‘the science of human nature’ is behind the underrepresentation of women in tech. Women hold just a quarter of IT jobs globally and, according to a 2017 report, men outnumbered women by at least three to one in more than half of 3,000 ­British companies analysed by Tech City UK. Google, meanwhile, prides itself on its progressive ideals, yet only 20 per cent of its engineers are female. What’s going on? Silicon Valley was supposed to be a panacea for the greed and corruption of Wall Street — all ping-pong tables and free bagels and bright young things hellbent on changing the world for the better. But for all the ­utopian rhetoric of its founders, something has gone awry. With the exception of outliers like Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, few women in tech have a seat at the table. ‘There were hardly any women in the technical field when I was at Facebook and little was done to recruit them,’ says product manager Bo Ren, who worked for the company from 2014 to 2016. ‘There was this disconnect between Sheryl’s whole “Lean In” ­philosophy and feeling that change on the product and engineering side. Facebook prides itself on being libertarian, but there’s a lot of unconscious bias underneath.’ Even more disturbing is the conscious bias — and outright sexism. Elephant in the Valley, a 2016 survey of more than 200 senior women in tech, found that 60 per cent had experienced unwanted sexual ­advances, while 87 per cent had been subjected to demeaning › features 27

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A high-profile sacking at Google has exposed tech’s ‘women’ problem, warns Alix O’Neill

Does sexism really bug Silicon Valley?

G R E I G

A N G U S

B Y

I L L U S T R A T I O N

A survey of more than 200 senior women in tech found 60 per cent had experienced unwanted sexual advances

When my mother was at school, there wasn’t much in the way of careers advice, though she was presented with a few options deemed suitable for a young woman about to enter the workforce: nurse or teacher. (Alternatively, in 1960s Ireland there was always convent life to fall back on.) Thankfully, I had a slightly more substantial list to consider as I prepared for university, but the suggested professions were still traditionally female roles.

Seventeen years later, the gender debate rages on. Recently, Google software engineer James Damore ignited an international firestorm after writing a tenpage leaked memo arguing that women are, in aggregate, biologically less suited than men to engineering and leadership positions. The internet giant swiftly sacked Damore, with chief executive Sundar Pichai claiming that his former employee had breached the company’s ‘basic values’. Although Damore’s remarks were condemned by many, there are plenty who support his view that ‘the science of human nature’ is behind the underrepresentation of women in tech.

Women hold just a quarter of IT jobs globally and, according to a 2017 report, men outnumbered women by at least three to one in more than half of 3,000 ­British companies analysed by Tech City UK. Google, meanwhile, prides itself on its progressive ideals, yet only 20 per cent of its engineers are female. What’s going on?

Silicon Valley was supposed to be a panacea for the greed and corruption of Wall Street — all ping-pong tables and free bagels and bright young things hellbent on changing the world for the better. But for all the ­utopian rhetoric of its founders, something has gone awry. With the exception of outliers like Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, few women in tech have a seat at the table. ‘There were hardly any women in the technical field when I was at Facebook and little was done to recruit them,’ says product manager Bo Ren, who worked for the company from 2014 to 2016. ‘There was this disconnect between Sheryl’s whole “Lean In” ­philosophy and feeling that change on the product and engineering side. Facebook prides itself on being libertarian, but there’s a lot of unconscious bias underneath.’

Even more disturbing is the conscious bias — and outright sexism. Elephant in the Valley, a 2016 survey of more than 200 senior women in tech, found that 60 per cent had experienced unwanted sexual ­advances, while 87 per cent had been subjected to demeaning

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