The gender thing

To the chagrin of some good friends, it does bother me that in certain segments of my work, men outnumber women 10:1. Women make up more than half of the American workforce and I wish I saw that more evenly represented in circles of power - whether that’s alpha geeks or executive suites.

Some cursory research confirms what is easily seen….There are relatively few women working in the technology, software development, and senior management sectors. The question is: Why? Is it that women simply choose not to enter these fields? Perhaps. But also true is that the circumstance is self-perpetuating.

I believe that this is a case where the symptom is also a cause. Diseases with this profile are pernicious and can be devastating if the symptoms persist unchecked.

It must be frustrating for white men to have to listen to the diversity rant over and over - especially those who genuinely embrace diversity. It’s legitimate that very few women work in the technology sector, and so even the best efforts to be inclusive can end in uncomfortably homogenous situations.

My dissatisfaction with the current imbalance does not devalue the contribution you (white men) make. The two are completely unrelated - I can value you and still wish to see others at the table.

Somewhere in the world there’s a woman in a burka writing bitchin javascript. I wonder what she’s doing with it? Wouldn’t it be nice to know? Smart, entrepreneurial people come in all shapes and sizes (and genders, races, religions,…). I wish more of that were represented in our business.

I’ve been talking about the diversity issue a lot in the past few months, and I’ve been told that if I’m going to complain about it, I have to take action. That’s fair, and I’d love to. But how do you take action without stumbling into other evils, like tokenism? I fear that it’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t. So I’m not sure what action to take. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.