Video: Women & Diversity in Tech

Attention toward diversity in technology companies has never been more intense. We were delighted to have the opportunity to provide our attendees with a Women & Diversity in Tech Panel at this year’s i4cp annual conference, proceeding a special screening of the Documentary CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap.

The panel was moderated by Lorrie Lykins, i4cp's managing editor and director of research services, as well as the author of the The SheSuite Blog. Our panelists were Alexis Fink, Director, Talent Intelligence & Analytics at Intel Corporation, Soheila Khosravani, Director, Strategic Sourcing and Partnerships at Boeing and Robin Hauser Reynolds, Producer and director of CODE

For years, technology companies actively hid the extent of their diversity problems—going so far as to block FOIA requests by arguing that the gender and race makeup of their workforce was a trade secret. Behind the scenes, these same companies scrambled to find ways to increase diversity. Then, in 2013, a Pinterest programmer, with the company's approval, wrote a blog post that revealed 90% of its engineers were male. Google, Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, Apple, and LinkedIn followed suit in 2014, posting their diversity numbers publicly. Transparency became the expected norm.

With these disclosures came promises to evolve, the appointment of chief diversity officers, and a whirlwind of new programs and initiatives aimed at recruiting and retaining people from underrepresented groups. But as far as numbers go, there is still a long way to go. If you missed this amazing panel discussion or want to experience it again, we’ve got you covered. The video is available here: