BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

A Diverse Workforce Calls For Leadership Vision

Following
This article is more than 8 years old.

I’m on a stop over at London’s Heathrow, soon to be in Cork, Ireland, where I’m at the IT@Cork European Technology Summit, taking part in an interactive conference and a panel on gender diversity’s impact on technology, business culture and the future of hiring. While I was still back home, the subject inspired my last post — in which one of the hot buttons had to do with putting sufficient STEM talent in place for the future — and not overlooking women in the process.

Creating a diverse workforce takes not only vision, but foresight: By not actively creating a talent pipeline for women, we cut off half of the workforce at a time when we’re going to fall short. A number of programs are working to create a foundation for tomorrow’s talent — something I’m now hearing about at this conference. But despite the utter duh of what will happen to tech business is we stick to business as usual, some of us still seem to have our heads in the, well, cloud. Or shall I say: Cloud? No pun intended. Ok, well maybe just one.

In Ireland, women hold positions of seniority in a number of large global tech businesses, including Apple, Microsoft, PayPal and many others. Programs have been created to funnel young women — and girls — through a pipeline that recognizes the need to give them recognition. One program includes firms bringing aspiring tech candidates in for a two-week stint, so they can experience working in the company culture first-hand. It’s a great idea — one the makes me wish we all could do something like this, building employee engagement far before a hire takes place.

Ireland is a top-echelon economic power for women: a University of Cambridge study places it fifth just behind Australia, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Systemically, the U.S., on the other hand, has a long ways to go. But this is a global issue. And it may be also an issue of role models as much as education and access. Given that idea, let me just lob out an example I just stumbled across.

I just happened to be hanging out on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook for 2014 while looking for STEM projections. This is a benchmark resource. For an impressionable youngster planning his or her career, it may well be the first step. STEMwise, if you hop onto the landing page of the computer and information technology page, and here’s what you see: little thumbnail photos next to simplistically written job descriptions. That kind of language is another indication that this is a site meant for educational and informational purposes — one can imagine a student being advised to consult the BLS for a report on careers.

So here’s my point: Every single photo next to every single category on that page about computer and technology careers features a guy.

Photo credit: Splitshare.com

To be fair, career pages themselves do feature some women. Which ones? It may just be an unfortunate oversight, but they happen to be the two lowest paying jobs: “computer support specialists” and “web developers.” Both feature women as the sample employee in the photo. The women computer support specialists are smiling (there are two men in the row behind them as well). The web developer is a smiling woman who is looking up at the camera.

But here’s the clincher: All the other images, for jobs that make the big bucks? With the exception of one woman sandwiched between two men as they stare at some very fancy hardware and keyboard in some presumably major code, they’re all men. And none of those men are smiling at the camera. They’re all working, with lots of wires and diodes and equipment. They look rather overworked, to be honest. They’re clearly skilled and have lots of gear.

Perhaps this is overanalyzing, but maybe not: Consider the fact that we are becoming an even more visual culture. In our hyperconnected, mobile and social modes of communication (where the Future of Work dwells), avatars and emoticons transmit worlds of information in a retinal milli-moment. And that’s where our blindness is showing.

So, what, and who, do you want your daughter to see?

Also on Forbes:

**

I have to extend my condolences to the family of Dave Goldberg, who very sadly passed away at the age of 47. The CEO of SurveyMonkey was a great advocate for women in tech — as is his wife, the remarkable Sheryl Sandberg. We lost a great one.

Photo credit: Splitshare.com