Uber just released its first diversity report. For years, the ride-hailing giant shunned the practice adopted by most other major Silicon Valley companies. But Uber's scandals have snowballed. Multiple claims of misogyny and sexual harassment suggest a company that doesn't just have isolated problems but a pervasive culture of sexism. Uber's responses have included a much-hyped conference call led by board member Arianna Huffington and this week the diversity report.
The numbers, to no one’s shock, were dismal. While a little more than one-third of Uber’s employees are women worldwide—close to the industry average—they only hold about one-fifth of the leadership roles, several percentage points lower than industry norms. When it comes to leadership jobs specifically related to Uber's tech, the fraction of women drops to just over one-tenth, and only 15 percent of Uber's engineers are female. Only six percent of the company's engineers are black, Hispanic, or multiracial, a figure similar to other big tech companies.
“This report is a first step in showing that diversity and inclusion is a priority at Uber,” Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said in a statement. “I know that we have been too slow in publishing our numbers—and that the best way to demonstrate our commitment to change is through transparency.”
But is it? After a few years of similarly lousy reports and similarly uninspired rhetoric from across the industry, diversity reports seem to have done little to spur actual improvements in tech industry diversity. Seems like the best way to demonstrate commitment to change is to change.
A few years ago, the industry seemed ready to do just that. In 2014, after actively stonewalling questions about the composition of their workforces—Silicon Valley companies began publishing annual diversity statistics. Yes, some started publishing earlier than others, and tech companies have also shown varying degrees of openness with their data. But one thing has stayed true: the numbers started out bleak. And they've barely budged. The results have become so monotonous that a handful of the companies have even started delaying their updates or reframing reports to focus on hiring goals rather than race and gender breakdowns.
"Transparency is good, but 'diversity as performance art' is not—and diversity reports are part of it," says engineer Cate Huston, who has written extensively about diversity in tech. "The parade of PR around diversity reports does not constitute meaningful change."
The releases now follow a formula. Companies pre-brief media companies with the news. They prepare measured statements from CEOs. They supply "diversity experts." The companies themselves also conduct, commission, and publicize their own diversity surveys. They have every incentive to make themselves look as good as possible. They often don't break down results by department or rank. Most of them leave out promotions, pay scales, and retention rates.
"Those rates get closer to the heart of the matter," says Rachel Thomas, a deep learning researcher who worked at Uber in 2013 and 2014. Thomas has criticized tech companies' "diversity branding," arguing that data on who is moving up at the company and who is leaving would offer a more meaningful measure of companies' efforts.
In the eyes of some, diversity reports still serve a useful purpose. "They create accountability," says Alexandra Kalev, a sociologist and professor at Tel Aviv University who has studied corporate diversity programs. "Everyone knows the numbers and they can evalsuate where they are after some time. And they create awareness—workers themselves become aware of their own lack of diversity." But so far that accountability has not made a real difference. "It’s a matter of what you do with the diversity report," Kalev says.
Research shows retention of women in tech is a systemic issue dating back nearly a decade. A 2008 survey showed that women left the industry at twice the rate of men. Meanwhile, the proportion of bachelor’s degrees in computer science earned by women has plunged from 37 percent in 1984 to 18 percent in 2014. (Industry-wide retention data doesn’t exist so far for people of color in tech, but an upcoming study from the Kapor Center for Social Impact is slated to explore this issue.)
Clearly, tech companies need to take the numbers coming out of diversity reports and apply them to real, actionable policies. Uber’s chief human resources officer is reportedly on a “listening tour” to hear employees' grievances. This is the wrong way to tackle the problem, Kalev says. “A program that points fingers at managers and decision-makers, and views them as a source of the problem that needs to be fixed—regardless of if they do contribute to the problem—creates alienation and resistance,” she says. There’s actually a decline in diversity at companies where such programs are enacted, according to Kalev’s research. “Managers don’t become committed to the goal of diversity; they feel threatened by the goal of diversity.”
The point where progress on diversity does become possible is when management and employees commit to changing the culture on their own. "Companies have to be willing to look those problems in the face and say, 'You know what? We’re going to be transparent about this,'" says Erica Joy Baker, a founding member of Project Include, which advocates for more diversity in Silicon Valley. Baker applauds Intel specifically as the only company in the Valley that publicizes its retention rates. “Even though they have their own diversity problems, they came to that decision on their own.”
Companies that made diversity training mandatory actually saw by declines in management diversity, Kalev's research has found. The best results, meanwhile, came at companies where managers voluntarily participated in mentorship programs and showed up to diversity training programs---generally, leading by example. Besides, not making diversity a requirement still draws in a pretty significant crowd: Kalev’s research showed voluntary programs still drew 80 percent of employees.
Yes, the problem of diversity in tech is deeply entrenched and now well-documented. Companies themselves are the first to jump up and say the process takes time. That's true. It's also absolutely true that companies will use the same line during next year's diversity report season. Rather than mouth platitudes, companies need to foster a real cultural change—not next year, but starting now.
