Even if the diversity numbers haven’t been exactly encouraging, it’s still great to see that tech companies are willing to acknowledge the problem by being transparent about it. Now the Internet radio streaming service Pandora has released their diversity numbers, and they’re a lot better than the rest for women, but still pretty poor in terms of racial diversity.
Where most of the tech giants have hung around the 30% mark or less for total percentage of female employees (Facebook: 31%, Twitter: 30%, Apple 30%), Pandora blows that out of the water with a 50.8% men/49.2% women split for the whole company.
That’s pretty great, but it’s important to note that they’re still lagging in leadership roles (38.8% women) and especially in tech roles, where women only make up 17.9% of their workforce. This is sadly more in line with the other companies, with Facebook at 15% women in tech, Apple at 20%, and Twitter at only 10%.
Also less than great are their racial diversity numbers, which fall slightly below Apple’s numbers and just a bit above Facebook and Twitter’s. They’re committed to continuing the trend they’ve started with their overall gender numbers according to a blog post by Pandora founder Tim Westegren, which makes mention of the fact that Pandora’s headquarters are in Oakland—one of the most diverse cities in the U.S. It’d be nice to see that reflected in Pandora’s workforce for sure.
Apple released their numbers recently with a similar promise of a drive for greater diversity, and with these numbers, we’ll be able to track over the coming year whether they stick to it or not. Fingers crossed.
(via The Atlantic)
- Here’s the full breakdown on Facebook’s numbers
- And Twitter’s are here
- Amazon Prime has a new kids’ eries that focuses on diversity in STEM fields
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