Google is planning to release statistics documenting the diversity of its workforce for the first time, amid escalating pressure on the technology industry to hire more minorities and women. The numbers are compiled as part of a report that major U.S. employers must file with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Employers, though, aren't required to make the information publicly available. Google Inc. had resisted previous calls for it to share the diversity data. David Drummond, an African-American executive who oversees Google's public policies, announced the about-face Wednesday during the company's annual shareholders' meeting at its headquarters in Mountain View. "Many companies in (Silicon Valley) have been reluctant to divulge that data, including Google, and, quite frankly, we are wrong about that," Drummond said. He said the information will be released next month.
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In light of some past articles on diversity, SoylentNews: "How to Get Girls Into Coding" and SoylentNews: "Google to Release Diversity Data About its Workforce" This CNN article caught my attention.
Princess Free Zone offers empowering T-shirts with images such as dinosaurs, skateboards and soccer balls. "Kids should not have to be brave to wear the things they like," says founder Michele Yulo.
[...] "Girl clothes without the girly" is the mantra behind Girls Will Be, which includes longer shorts and T-shirts (no pink ones!) with images that seek to break gender stereotypes.
[...] The company buddingSTEM offers a line of girls' clothes celebrating girls' interests in science, engineering, technology and math.
Please, browse the photos. They are full of lovely little girls, minus what I call the "silly frilly" stuff. You might even click some links, and find something fitting for the young lady in your life!
Some might complain that it's a very small start - but the longest journey begins with a single step. Each of these startups seems to be doing pretty much what I've called for - giving the girls what THEY want, rather then telling them what they should want.
One of my favorite T-shirts, seen on girls young and mature, http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=92703208
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @02:29AM
Show many H1-B and contract workers you use instead.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by edIII on Friday May 16 2014, @03:04AM
THIS.
I don't believe in affirmative action, {race} privilege, or any of that bullshit. Racism never cures racism. Don't care at all about Google's hiring practices in that regard, as it's equally likely they will discriminate against a white male in his 40's at this point simply because of AA.
What I care about is the mass outsourcing of skilled labor by greedy suits. That's what really affects the economy I live in and is deciding what standard of living I can reasonably attain. Skilled or not.
It's not that I would begrudge any foreigner from competing with me either. I would openly welcome them here. Just stay here, and more importantly, keep your money here and invest in the local community and economy. Even with that being said, I understand brain drain. I'm looking to leave the US pretty soon since the country of my birth is long dead at this point. Wherever I go though, I will commit to them, learn the language, and be part of the community.
Google, or any other behemoth, is not going to tell me anything I really want to know. Who cares anyways? It's not like you can vote with your wallets when they ALL do it at the same time.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1) by Fwip on Friday May 16 2014, @07:50PM
If you don't believe in white privilege - that is, you don't believe that white people are advantaged by being white, than your thoughts on racism are irrelevant. It's like a young-earth creationist opining about the Mesozoic era.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday May 17 2014, @05:49AM
Same to you.
It's moronic and offensive beyond Nazi levels that you think some White Power Superheroes exist that will descend down upon me and make it so that I don't have to suffer the consequences of my actions. That I can be a jagoff, not work, generate a bunch a crotch fruit, and that my all mighty whiteness somehow gets me high paying jobs when I have no qualifications and I'm not willing to work.
That's not true in the real world buddy. Nobody cares in business that I'm white. They care about what I know, what have I done, what can I do, and what the fuck am I willing to be paid for doing it.
Never had one job, or one client, or anybody ever tell me or even hint that my whiteness is what landed me the job.
So you know what? Go FUCK YOURSELF WITH A CACTUS.
What you don't understand you racist bastard, is that you invalidate me and marginalize me by claiming I benefit from white privilege. You are really saying that it will never matter in my life about my sacrifice, my struggles, my effort to become educated and highly specialized with specific domain knowledge.
"EdIII, come on in and sit down. Glad you're working for us now. I understand things kind of got hairy there for a minute and you thought you lost your yacht. You know why you're here? LOL. Just kidding. You white. *BZZZT* Mrs. Jameson? Can you get a minority out there to come in give EdIII a blowjob? Thanks sweet cheeks."
You're a fucking asshole and a racist. There is no such thing as white privilege, which is why you are also a fucking retard. While you are sitting there bitter (whether you are white or not) about hating white privilege you are ignoring the multi-ethnic multi-racial multi-national attempt by the elite to get us to argue about stupid petty shit instead of taking them to task for the reality of running our world into the shitter.
Keep on thinking it's the white man....
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1) by Fwip on Saturday May 17 2014, @10:50PM
You're awfully eager to set that straw man ablaze, aren't you?
It's kinda telling how you think that saying that [in America, being white is more advantageous than being black] is more offensive than [we should kill all Jewish people].
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday May 16 2014, @03:09AM
As much as I enjoy having a racist knee-jerk reaction, keep in mind that the announcement will reveal that the majority of workers are Chinese or of other Asian descent, and if it is not that way it means that they prepared the report specifically after realigning the demographics within (read: firing the Chinese spies), which is why they waited so long to release the report.
I called it here, first. I remember that the demographics of this company were asked years ago, but not released. Why are they being released only now? What they release now doesn't mean a goddamn thing, what they should release are the truthful changes in their demographics over time. Now that would tell a story.
Either that or being comprised almost entirely of U.S. agents, specifically the CIA's Clandestine Service [cia.gov] double-dipping on fat salaries while you and your kids are eating Ramen noodles 3 meals a day.
(Score: 1) by Fwip on Friday May 16 2014, @07:46PM
"As much as I enjoy having a racist knee-jerk reaction, [recites racism]."
(Score: 2) by AnythingGoes on Friday May 16 2014, @03:16AM
And there should not be too many female teachers, female babysitters/children's workers or female nurses?
And there should also be equal numbers of female bricklayers, female garbage collectors, female street sweepers and female soldiers?
And also have an equal representation of tall and short, male and female, able bodied and handicapped basketball players in each team?
After all, basketball teams are being unfair to the whites and the "vertically challenged" people, and each team should must have the average height of players be equal to the average height of the population
So, we should strive for an equal representation of the genders and races in all professions and all types of employment opportunities.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @01:25PM
> So should hospitals and schools also show what their employment demographics are like?
Public schools and hospitals definitely do.
> And there should not be too many female teachers, female babysitters/children's workers or female nurses?
Like many people with only a shallow concept of discrimination you think you are clever by pointing out that it must be unfair to men that women disproportionately work in certain fields. What you fail to understand is that is a symptom of women being crowded out of most other fields, so by default they end up in the relatively few areas in which they aren't discriminated against.
Social dynamics is complex stuff, simplistic analysis is pretty much a guarantee of incorrect conclusions. But simplistic analysis is great for justifying a personal bias.
(Score: 2) by AnythingGoes on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:31AM
So you enlighten us on what the appropriate analysis would be? Since we all know that simplistic analysis is what everyone else will use?
The reason why I highlight all this is because in any discussion about diversity, everyone talks about the upper end (CxO/executives), but never about the lower end (janitors/sanitation workers/receptionists etc), and they never take the average salary of all groups, but it is always preselected groups that make the data look good..
So if you agree that forcing basketball teams to hire players of all heights is stupid and results in a poorly performing team, then why is forcing a company to hire diverse people in its executive/upper management team considered good?
(Score: 1) by lentilla on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:45PM
By your logic, it follows that women should be actively discriminated against in those very fields where they are currently expected - such that they actively seek employment in those fields with a paucity of female participation. If we discriminate against men in some fields, it makes sense we discriminate against women in others.
"Affirmative action" (i.e.: deliberate, mandated discrimination) may have its place - but only in the short period (and certainly less than a decade) immediately after a society legally recognises an existing foolishness. It is a drastic, patiently unfair, short-term solution to address an unbalance. The ultimate aim is to achieve an equilibrium. Once that immediate period has passed, only the passage of time can hope to achieve an appropriate equilibrium based on societal expectations and the reality of human interactions.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by WizardFusion on Friday May 16 2014, @10:39AM
Is it just me, or does anyone actually care.?
I don't care who gets hired, just as long as they are the right person for the job, and not because it ticks a box on some random report.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TheGratefulNet on Friday May 16 2014, @03:16PM
I care about locals getting pushed out and actually *actively* avoided because we are too expensive (ie, we have typical US expenses to carry). I don't care about race but I do care where people are from. see, we should not be the world's policement and similarly we should not be the world's dumping ground for cheap labor; ESPECIALLY when it displaces citizens who grew up here, paid dues here, know the culture, are invested here and want to see the country get back on track again. we want to see a thriving middle class again. but I'm not seeing it, I'm seeing a de-evolution of the MC where locals stand in unemployment lines and foreigners come here, push others out and take jobs away.
yes, there is a hierarchy in every country and do you think, as an american, I can just as easily find work overseas and displace locals there? in a fucking pig's eye, I can! I cannot! there IS protectionism in every other country by ours. here, cheapest labor for the 1% owners is all that matters. erosion of MC is 'not their problem'.
this is not sustainable. we HAVE to prefer our own people to foreigners. unlimited greed and capitalism without humanist balance is a disaster and just not sustainable. we are killing our own society.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @04:51PM
If the data reveals that Google doesn't have the same racial and gender mix as the general population will they adjust their hiring practices to balance the mix? What if they have less than 63% non-Hispanic whites? Will they have a hiring drive for white people? Would that be racist?
Racism is wrong. Sexism is wrong. If their hiring practices aren't racist or sexist, then making them sexist or racist to "balance" their employee mix is wrong. Publishing this data serves no purpose if we truly want a society free of racism and sexism. They may as well publish the statistics on eye color for all the difference it should make.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @05:04PM
didyagetit?