Class 14: Diversity & Inclusion in the Tech Industry - HeraldoM332/301-Reading-Notes GitHub Wiki
Why is this important?
This topic is important because it demonstrates why women stopped involving themselves with computers, because as a society it became accepted that men were the ones who mainly messed with computers. (A statement I do not agree with) It shows how things work when there's a shift in change
What occurred during the same time as the beginning of the decline of women in computer science?
The share of women in computer science started falling at roughly the same moment when personal computers started showing up in U.S. homes in significant numbers.
Why does it matter that males had been playing on computers growing up?
This idea that computers are for boys became a narrative. It became the story we told ourselves about the computing revolution. It helped define who geeks were, and it created techie culture.
Why is this important?
Diversity is a much needed things in companies with representation and the way they see things on a different scale from others.
When are diversity efforts most successful?
When they’re driven by a commitment from company leaders.
Why do diverse companies perform better?
Given that diverse teams are smarter and more creative than homogeneous ones, it is unsurprising that a wealth of research shows a strong correlation between diverse organizations and positive financial outcomes. In a 2011 study of diversity in the top firms in Standard & Poor's Composite 1500 list, researchers found “female representation in top management leads to an increase of $42 million in firm value.”
Give an example of how a diverse company can serve a diverse user base or vise-versa.
When YouTube’s almost entirely right-handed developer team built the iOS app without considering how left-handed people would use it, for example, 5% to 10% of videos were uploaded upside down as a result. This factor may be especially relevant for leaders of consumer tech companies.
Things I want to know more about
How I can further my knowledge on understand diversity and how it affects us currently in this day and age
Resources:
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-women-stopped-coding
https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/diversity-in-tech/