A Developer at Slack on the Importance of Diversity in Tech

While tech giants such as Google and Facebook have been transparent about sharing their diversity statistics and efforts to increase minority representation, the low numbers of women and minorities at work in Silicon Valley’s thriving tech industry have, in the words of a recent Atlantic cover story, “barely budged” over the past few years. According to a 2014 report by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, women make up only 36 percent of the high-tech workforce. (They account for about 47 percent of workers overall.) Black workers account for only 7 percent of the industry’s jobs, and Hispanics fare slightly better at 8 percent. This means that, despite years of talking about change, much of the industry, particularly leadership roles, remains dominated by white men.