Code.org: Blame Tech Diversity On Education Pipeline, Not Hiring Discrimination

theodp writes: "The biggest reason for a lack of diversity in tech," says Code.org's Hadi Partovi in a featured Re/code story, "isn't discrimination in hiring or retention. It's the education pipeline." (Code.org just disclosed "we have no African Americans or Hispanics on our team of 30.") Supporting his argument, Partovi added: "In 2013, not one female student took the AP computer science exam in Mississippi." (Left unsaid is that only one male student took the exam in Mississippi). Microsoft earlier vilified the CS education pipeline in its U.S. Talent Strategy as it sought "targeted, short-term, high-skilled immigration reforms" from lawmakers. And Facebook COO and "Lean In" author Sheryl Sandberg recently suggested the pipeline is to blame for Facebook's lack of diversity. "Girls are at 18% of computer science college majors," Sandberg told USA Today in August. "We can't go much above 18% in our coders [Facebook has 7,185 total employees] if there's only 18% coming into the workplace."

Comments

Re:I'm glad SOMEBODY finally said this

[toejam13]

Shouldn't the diversity crusaders be making waves calling for more male enrollment in fashion?

Actually, the call should be for more heterosexual males. One complaint about the fashion industry is that many of the men are gay. And it has been speculated that one of the reasons female models in the model industry are built like teenage boys is because gay fashion designers have a preference for this body type*. The frequency of female models with this body type are a well known cause of self-image and eating disorders in young women.

/* the other two reasons being that 1) clothes for skinny women without curves are easier to tailor and 2) designers want people to admire the clothes, not the women