Apple Releases New Diversity Numbers, Hired Over 11,000 Women in Past Year

[Eraserhead]

I like the way you quantify this. Either Apple was hiring the best candidates before the implemented changes, or they are hiring the best candidates now.

I wonder which it is. I hope it's the latter - that they are moving away from bad hiring practices.

I'd think of it as before they were hiring the best individuals, now they are hiring the best team.

Classic reflection. I know many who have survived being passed over for promotion and advancement due to an agenda that placed merit as secondary.

That has been true since the beginning of time.

Technology is an up or out business. While ageism has always been an issue in tech, the argument of senior employees not adapting to new technologies and methodologies is quite valid.

While obviously you have to keep up with technology to an extent, much in technology hasn't improved as much as you'd like whether you're using FORTRAN or Node.js.

Why does it matter? Have you ever asked men why they don't pursue degrees in nursing, education, french poetry, social work, psychology, etc...? Equality in outcome is not the same as equality in opportunity. Perhaps we should discuss why you think women's current education and career choices shouldn't be respected...

Well we absolutely need to address those things, the lack of male primary school teachers means that young boys don't have strong male role models - especially those with only a single mother. The same applies to a more acute degree with social workers.

Probably male nurses will do a better job with older male patients who might be more comfortable being looked after medically by a man.

 

[iceperson]

Erm... perhaps because it is convincing evidence of discrimination. if there were a minority of men at Apple the male victim culture would be screaming about it. But don't worry, Apple is still mostly men. It's that Y chromosome. It makes us so much better at technology...

Yes, because men and women couldn't possibly have different interests...

 

[Dammit Cubs]

There is like 2 people on the photo that not only have an apple watch...but they are wearing it on their right hand........

 

[richpjr]

Have you ever asked why women only compose under 20% of the degrees? And then listened to the answers from women? That is the first step to changing the reality of today.

Apple is one of the companies doing well in this regard. They get to share a first movers advantage where they likely are getting qualified candidates, as other companies are passing them over. Unconscious sexism or gender bias is an issue to be aware of just as unconscious racism. A company has to do a deep examination of their recruiting practices, job descriptions, work environment and more to really improve. Apple, along with Intel and a few others are showing great progress in this regard.

In the end, it's helping Apple succeed too. Look at the success of the Apple Watch over Android Wear in the markets outside the typical white male tech crowds. This happened because of likely key women hires early in that process, resulting in 38mm and unique band offerings. For the women I know that I've shown off the Apple Watch to, they find it a far more appealing choice over anything in the Android Wear offerings.

This entire post is filled with suppositions and blind guesses. It doesn't matter why under 20% of the degrees go to women as far as what Apple just did. The reality is the pool of engineers is composed of heavily of men, like it or not, right or wrong. Once again, if the people Apple hired are the most qualified - great. If not, I'm not sure how anyone can spin hiring lesser qualified people as being good for a company's future.

The watch and virtually all of Apple's products on the market were designed before this 11k hiring spree. And since Apple has long been known for high quality, innovative products before the sudden emphasis on diversity, I guess those white males did a pretty good job on their products. If that less than 20% number changed, the qualified pool of candidates would change as well.

 

[bradl]

I'll just leave this here, and my (un)apologies for it being graphic intensive.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...s-to-an-ad-spark-ilooklikeanengineer-campaign

Sexist Reactions To An Ad Spark #ILookLikeAnEngineer Campaign
August 04, 2015 2:24 PM ET
By Bill Chappell

After being surprised by online responses to her appearance in a recruiting ad, software engineer Isis Wenger wanted to see if anyone else felt like they didn't fit a "cookie-cutter mold." The response to her #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign dwarfs those initial reactions.

The hashtag, which was generating thousands of responses and tweets Tuesday, grew out of Wenger's post at the Medium website, in which she described what must have been a frustrating experience: agreeing to be one of her tech company's highlighted workers for a recruiting campaign — only to see many people question whether she actually works there as an engineer.

"The negative opinions about this ad that strangers feel so compelled to share illustrate solid examples of the sexism that plagues tech," Wenger wrote.

She said she was surprised by the inordinate amount of attention paid to her ad — in which, like her peers, she appears on a square placard, wearing a black T-shirt with the logo of her employer, OneLogin. On social media, the campaign's merits were debated; so were Wenger's expression and appearance.

It was not at all what Wenger, a self-described nerd who likes yoga, anime — and not being the center of attention — had in mind when she went along with her company's plan.

"News flash: this isn't by any means an attempt to label 'what female engineers look like,' " she wrote. "This is literally just ME, an example of ONE engineer at OneLogin."

While she was giving examples, Wenger also recounted instances in which she had experienced sexism, saying that some men in the tech industry exhibit "a significant lack of empathy and insight towards recognizing that their 'playful/harmless' behavior is responsible for making others inappropriately uncomfortable."

Wenger also wrote that if she can use the attention "to put a spotlight on gender issues in tech I consider that to be at least one win."

She then asked, "Do you not fit the 'cookie-cutter mold' of what people believe engineers 'should look like?'"

And the answers quickly came back: "#iLookLikeAnEngineer."

Those who took notice included the Federal Communications Commission's Jessica Rosenworcel, who wrote of the hashtag, "Just combing through all the photos online is inspiring."

BL.

 

[PJL500]

This thread is littered with bigots. It is clear that qualified women are being passed over because of the prejudiced perception that a male would be more suitable because of his sex. This has to stop and Apple is doing the right thing by rooting out this prejudice from its human resource departments. It has to happen in every human resource department everywhere.

 

[richpjr]

This thread is littered with bigots. It is clear that qualified women are being passed over because of the prejudiced perception that a male would be more suitable because of his sex. This has to stop and Apple is doing the right thing by rooting out this prejudice from its human resource departments. It has to happen in every human resource department everywhere.

Nonsense. This thread is littered with people concerned that the best people might have been passed over to hit a diversity quota.

 

[iceperson]

This thread is littered with bigots. It is clear that qualified women are being passed over because of the prejudiced perception that a male would be more suitable because of his sex. This has to stop and Apple is doing the right thing by rooting out this prejudice from its human resource departments. It has to happen in every human resource department everywhere.

The number of stores that sell women's clothing at my local mall is more than 4 times the number of men's clothing stores. Using your logic this is a clear indication of misanthropy and bigotry against men. Down with the matriarchy...

 

[Eraserhead]

Yes, because men and women couldn't possibly have different interests...

Well they can, in general, but I don't believe quite so few men wish to be primary school teachers etc.

 

[Eraserhead]

The number of stores that sell women's clothing at my local mall is more than 4 times the number of men's clothing stores. Using your logic this is a clear indication of misanthropy and bigotry against men. Down with the matriarchy...

I don't think it's bigotry towards men, as men are allowed more relaxed standards of dress by society, which is good mostly, but means we can't wear as interesting clothes.

 

[randian]

"Diversity is critical to innovation"

I can't wait to hear the female or homosexual perspective on high-performance cluster design. I'm sure I have a lot to learn from them.

 

[Eraserhead]

"Diversity is critical to innovation"

I can't wait to hear the female or homosexual perspective on high-performance cluster design. I'm sure I have a lot to learn from them.

I think this post proves that there is widespread sexism in technology.

 

[randian]

I think this post proves that there is widespread sexism in technology.

Because it is sexist to claim that there are areas of knowledge where being female doesn't add value.

 

[Eraserhead]

Because it is sexist to claim that there are areas of knowledge where being female doesn't add value.

It's sexist to assume women and gays have nothing to contribute. Maybe you aren't being sexist, but your post was expressed pretty poorly.

 

[randian]

It's sexist to assume women and gays have nothing to contribute.

I said being female added no value to the subject, not that being female prevents you from adding value to the subject.

 

[trife]

I really hope that all you white males that are so up in arms over this put your money where your mouth is and stop supporting a company whose diversity stance clearly goes against your beliefs. After all, you guys are the victims of Apple's witch hunt against the white male, right? Surely you couldn't spend money with a company like that, right?

But you won't. You'll just bitch and moan, play the victim and act like you don't have it better than literally any other sex/race combo on the planet and then buy the next iPhone.

 

[Eraserhead]

.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

.

Sometimes, silence is golden.

 

[iceperson]

"Diversity is critical to innovation"

I can't wait to hear the female or homosexual perspective on high-performance cluster design. I'm sure I have a lot to learn from them.

It's sexist to assume women and gays have nothing to contribute. Maybe you aren't being sexist, but your post was expressed pretty poorly.

I think it was expressed perfectly clearly. Don't blame him for your failure to understand.

I'll honestly never understand the SJW position. Females perform better than males in primary and secondary school, they're more likely to graduate high school, more likely to get accepted into college, more likely to enroll in college, more likely to complete college, but the SJW position seems to be women aren't capable of choosing their own educational and career paths simply because women don't choose the same things as men. Now we have white men like Gates and Zuckerberg coming to the rescue of all women. Don't worry ladies, the men are here to show you where you're wrong so you make the right choices, male choices, in the future. To me this position is the hight of sexism.

 

[Happybunny]

To all you people who are against Apple's decision to hire these women, what’s your solution, should the government step in and tell private companies who they can hire?

You could of course appeal to the stockholders to reverse this decision, but of course you would then have to come out publicly, no more anonymous posts on a forum.

I will tell you all now you are not going to turn the clock back to the 1950’s, the white male’s place in the sun, is now no longer guaranteed.

 

[adnbek]

So in other words 1.4 megabytes

You get a floppy disk.... you get a floppy disk.... EVERYBODY GETS A FLOPPY DISK.

 

[iceperson]

To all you people who are against Apple's decision to hire these women, what’s your solution, should the government step in and tell private companies who they can hire?

You could of course appeal to the stockholders to reverse this decision, but of course you would then have to come out publicly, no more anonymous posts on a forum.

I will tell you all now you are not going to turn the clock back to the 1950’s, the white male’s place in the sun, is now no longer guaranteed.

When did gender neutral hiring become the radical position? There is no equality to be achieved through discrimination.

 

[Happybunny]

When did gender neutral hiring become the radical position? There is no equality to be achieved through discrimination.

That wasn't the question, I asked do you think that the government should tell companies who they should hire, or do you think stockholders should reverse this decision?

Or are you all going to do nothing but have a gigantic HISSY fit.

 

[citizenzen]

When did gender neutral hiring become the radical position? There is no equality to be achieved through discrimination.

It's been the radical position throughout time. Liberals have been fighting for it for decades. Remember the Equal Rights Amendment? I'm 54 years-old, and can remember how much progress has been made in just my lifetime. That progress has been hard fought, and largely due to radicals trying to move society toward gender neutrality.

And today, after years of horrible unfairness towards women, when the playing field tips just a wee bit away from men, some here call out for gender neutrality as if it's the dearest value they ever held. Losing privilege has finally made some people aware of why radicals fought so hard for this in the first place.

 

[iceperson]

That wasn't the question, I asked do you think that the government should tell companies who they should hire, or do you think stockholders should reverse this decision?

Or are you all going to do nothing but have a gigantic HISSY fit.

I'll just stand by ready to say "I told you so." When this little social experiment fails. Women who are actually interested in the job have plenty of opportunity, the ones who only came in because they heard the salaries were good and companies didn't care if they were qualified as long as they have the right plumbing will fail and blame it on sexism, but eventually companies will realize that people who want the job will earn it.