Technology

Google Still Struggling to Diversify Beyond White, Asian Men

Published

9 years ago

June 2, 2015

Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks at the PUSHTech2020 Summit Wednesday, May 6, 2015, in San Francisco. Jackson and his Rainbow Push organization are holding the summit as part of a year-old campaign to pressure tech companies into hiring and promoting more minorities and women. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks at the PUSHTech2020 Summit Wednesday, May 6, 2015, in San Francisco. Jackson and his Rainbow Push organization held the summit as part of a year-old campaign to pressure tech companies into hiring and promoting more minorities and women. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google isn’t making much headway diversifying its workforce beyond white and Asian men, even though the Internet company hired women to fill one out of every five of its openings for computer programmers and other high-paying technology jobs last year.

The imbalanced picture emerged in a demographic breakdown that Google released Monday. The report underscored the challenges that Google and most other major technology companies face as they try to add more women, blacks and Hispanics to their payrolls after many years of primarily relying on the technical skills of white and Asian men.

“Early indications show promise, but we know that with an organization our size, year-on-year growth and meaningful change is going to take time,” said Nancy Lee, Google’s vice president of people operations.

Just 18 percent of Google’s worldwide technology jobs were held by women entering 2015, up a percentage point from the previous year. Whites held 59 percent of Google’s tech jobs in the U.S., while Asians filled 35 percent of the positions, according to the report.

The slight uptick in women stemmed from a concerted effort to bring the numbers up. Google said 21 percent of the workers that it hired for technology jobs last year were women. The Mountain View, California, company added 9,700 jobs last year, although it declined to specify how many were for programming and other openings requiring technical knowledge.

Overall, Google employed 53,600 people at the end of 2014. In the U.S., just 2 percent of Google’s workers were black and 3 percent were Hispanic. Cutting across all industries in the U.S., 12 percent of the workforce is black and 14 percent is Hispanic.

The latest snapshot of Google’s workforce comes roughly a year after the company publicly disclosed the gender and racial makeup of its payroll for the first time, casting a spotlight on a diversity problem vexing the entire technology industry. Other well-known technology trendsetters, including Apple and Facebook, subsequently released data revealing similar diversity problems.

Mortified by the disclosures, Google and most of its other technology peers have been pouring more money into programs steering more women, blacks and Hispanics to focus on science and math in schools and have stepped up their recruiting of minority students as they prepare to graduate from college.

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who has been spearheading the drive to diversify the tech industry, applauded Google for releasing its workforce data again to help keep the pressure on the technology industry to change the composition of its payroll.

“Tech companies must move from the aspiration of ‘doing better’ to concrete actionable hiring to move the needle,” Jackson said in a statement. “We aim to change the flow of the river.”

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Attorney General Rob Bonta, Oakland Lawmakers, Introduce Legislation to Protect Youth Online

At a press conference in downtown Oakland on Jan. 29, Attorney General Rob Bonta joined Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) to announce two pieces of legislation designed to protect children online. The bills are Senate Bill (SB) 976, the Protecting Youth from Social Media Addiction Act and Assembly Bill (AB) 1949, the California Children’s Data Privacy Act.

Published

2 weeks ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

From left to right: Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), Attorney General Rob Bonta and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) at a press conference introducing legislation to protect young people online.

By Magaly Muñoz

The bills are Senate Bill (SB) 976, the Protecting Youth from Social Media Addiction Act and Assembly Bill (AB) 1949, the California Children’s Data Privacy Act.

Skinner authored SB 976, which addresses online addiction affecting teenage users, while Wicks’s bill, AB 1949, takes on big tech by proposing data privacy and children rights protections.

“Social media companies unfortunately show us time and time again that they are all too willing to ignore the detriment to our children, the pain to our children, the mental health and physical challenges they face, in order to pursue profits,” Bonta said.

SB 976 would allow parents to control the nature and frequency of the content their under-18-year-old children see on social media. Notifications from social media platforms would also be paused from midnight to 6 am and controls would allow parents to set time limits on their children’s usage based on their discretion.

Skinner stated that the longer that kids are on their phones during the day, the higher the risk for depression, anxiety and other related issues.

The bill would also push to get rid of addictive media that is harmful for young women and girls, specifically image filters that mimic cosmetic plastic surgery.

Bonta and 33 other attorney generals had previously filed a lawsuit against Meta, owner of the popular social media applications Instagram and Facebook. The filing claims that the company purposefully uses algorithmized content that harms younger audiences.

“Social media companies have the ability to protect our kids, they could act, but they do not,” Skinner said.

The Child Data Privacy Act would strengthen existing protections for data privacy under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The lawmakers argue that the law does not have effective protection for those under 18 years old.

Wicks stated that the bill would forbid businesses from collecting, using, sharing, or selling personal data of anyone underage unless they receive informed consent, or it becomes necessary for the purpose of the business.

Wicks added that the acts would make it so that a search on the internet like “How do I lose weight?” would not result in dieting pill advertisements targeting youth, which, some experts report, could be harmful to their mental and physical health.

“In a digital age where the vulnerabilities of young users are continually exploited, we cannot afford to let our laws lag behind, our children deserve complete assurance that their online experience will be safeguarded from invasive practices,” Wicks said.

Supporters of the two acts say they have gained bipartisan support issue, but the authors and Bonta expect them to be met with pushback from the affected companies.

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Unleashing the Power_ Discover the The Thrills…F-TYPE Convertible

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4 months ago

December 18, 2023

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Performance & Handling
Powered by a robust 5.0 Liter Supercharged 8 Cylinder Gas Engine, the F-Type R75 doesn’t just purr; it roars with a mighty 575 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque. Coupled with an 8-speed Automatic Transmission, the car offers an exhilarating drive that is both fast and smooth. The All-Wheel Drive system ensures excellent traction and stability, making it a joy to handle in various driving conditions. The Electric Power Assisted Steering and JaguarDrive Control with Selectable Driving Modes add to the car’s agility, providing a driving experience that is as intuitive as it is thrilling. Additionally, the Adaptive Dynamics and Electronic Active Differential with Torque Vectoring by Braking enhance the car’s responsiveness, making every turn a testament to its engineering prowess. Unique to AutoNetwork.com.

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Elevate Your Ride…

Join us for a virtual car’s best-detailed walkaround of the sleek and stylish 2024 Jaguar F-TYPE AWD convertible. Get an up-close look at the exterior design, interior features, and performance capabilities of this luxury sports car. From its powerful engine to its advanced technology, this video will give you a comprehensive overview of what makes […]
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4 months ago

December 18, 2023

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Join us for a virtual car’s best-detailed walkaround of the sleek and stylish 2024 Jaguar F-TYPE AWD convertible. Get an up-close look at the exterior design, interior features, and performance capabilities of this luxury sports car. From its powerful engine to its advanced technology, this video will give you a comprehensive overview of what makes the F-TYPE AWD convertible stand out on the road. Unique to AutoNetwork.com.