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McNair Center Women

Women in Top Tech Companies

In 2014, many of the top tech companies released information on their employee diversity demographics for the first time, bringing attention to the low representation of women in top tech companies. This post looks beyond these numbers. How are tech companies responding to this gender imbalance?

The top five tech companies by market cap are, in order: Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook. The gender balance of each company’s workforce is in the table below:

women-workforce-table
Sources are linked for Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and  Facebook. Data on national averages can be found here and here.

All of these companies are seeking to improve their gender balance and support current women employees. Resource groups, family benefits and smart hiring practices are some of the most common solutions. Even when these efforts are made, the male-dominated work environments can be far from ideal for women at these companies.

Women Employee Experiences

Resource Groups

Resource groups can serve as valuable support networks for women employees. Each of the top tech five has at least one employee resource group for women (Apple: Women@Apple; Google: Women@Google, Google Women in Engineering; Microsoft: Women@Microsoft; Facebook: Women@Facebook, Amazon: Women@Amazon, Amazon Women in Engineering, Women in Finance Initiative). All of these groups share similar goals: empowering women in their workforce and providing networking opportunities.

Many of these resource groups also participate in community outreach, engaging young girls and women and creating programs to foster their interests in technology. (See Women in STEM: Closing the Gap for more information on how community outreach can help change the culture around women in STEM in the United States.)  After recognizing that underrepresentation of women in tech is related to the lack of educational STEM exposure and encouragement for women, Facebook created Computer Science and Engineering Lean-In Circles to support women in college who are interested in CS.

Conferences

Sponsoring women’s tech conferences, like the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing or the Women in Real Life (WiRL) Conference, is also common among these resource groups. Amazon even holds its own conference: Every year, the women’s resource groups at Amazon also team up to host AmazeCon, a diversity conference that focuses on the achievements due to diverse teams at Amazon. The conference draws thousands of experts and leaders to discuss the importance of diversity in creativity and accomplishments.

Microsoft has taken an extra step by creating an innovative program for women, Women Think Next. WTN is a “worldwide community for professional women,” bringing together women from varying fields and backgrounds to network and support one another.

The program is not limited to Microsoft employees. WTN encouraged any and all professional women around the world to join. Women Think Next holds an annual networking conference and provides resources for women throughout the year. The conference also serves as a recruitment event for Microsoft to hire women with strong skills.

Employee Complaints

Everything isn’t always as it seems on paper, though. The male-dominated work environments at these companies can be isolating for female workers. In 2015, Microsoft faced a lawsuit accusing the company of gender-discriminatory policies in employee reviews. In May 2016, a former Facebook contractor published a piece on the sexism she experienced while working on a project team. During September 2016, Apple received criticism in the media for a series of leaked emails that revealed the company’s unresponsiveness to concerns of women employees. Through these emails, women employees described the company’s atmosphere as “toxic,” including workplace harassment and gender discrimination.

It is important to note that these are all anecdotal experiences. Each company responded by emphasizing that they take complaints like these seriously. The sensitive nature of the companies’ investigations of these claims prevents more information from being public.

Work-Life Balance

In American society, women often face conflict between the gender norms surrounding women’s family responsibilities and a desire to pursue a career. Maternity and family leave benefits can be an important factor in a woman’s decision to stay with a company in the long run, especially after she has started a family.

Of all of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development member countries, the United States is the only one that does not mandate paid maternity leave. According to the most recent statistics, only 12% of Americans receive this benefit.

However, within the tech top five, they seem to go far and beyond this requirement. Below is a summary of the family leave benefits for the tech top five.

maternity-leave-chart
Sources are linked for Apple here and hereAlphabet, Microsoft here, here and here, AmazonFacebook, and National Standard

It is not surprising that these companies give generous benefits. Named the best place to work in the U.S. in 2015 by both Forbes and Glassdoor, Google is known for its employee perks. One of Google’s greatest strengths lies in its emphasis on self-study to determine workforce problems and find solutions. In 2007, Google’s People Operations (AKA Human Resources) department noticed that new mothers left Google at twice the average departure rate. In response, the company decided to lengthen paid maternity leave from 12 to 18 weeks. After this change, Google’s departure rate for new mothers dropped by 50 percent.

Controversial Benefits

In 2014, both Apple and Facebook received media attention for their announcements that they would pay to freeze U.S.-based employees’ eggs. Apple announced it as a new dimension to their support for infertility treatments. The move was met with mixed reviews by the media. NBC News praised it as a “game-changing perk,” but The Guardian denounced it as “unreasonable and illogical.” Supporters of the policy argue that it gives female employees more flexibility in their decision to have children. Critics claim that the policy sends the wrong message, implying that if female employees want to succeed at work, they need to delay motherhood.

Parental Equality

It is important to look not only at a company’s maternity leave policies, but at their parental and family leave policies as well. Studies of maternity and motherhood-related policies in other countries, like a mandated child care law in Chile and a reduced hours law in Spain, have shown that offering parental benefits only to women can lead to a decrease in salary and promotion rates of all women at a company, even those who don’t take advantage of them. One approach to combating these negative effects could be making these policies gender-neutral. This would allow for men to take advantage of these policies and reduce gender-discriminatory practices.

Hiring, Promotions and Pay

Facebook has received attention for its hiring point system. Facebook’s recruiters receive points for new hires, but based on the new recruits’ diversity, it can earn recruiters more points. White or Asian males only count for one point, whereas black, Hispanic, or female new hires count for two points. Higher point totals can lead to good performance reviews and bonuses for recruiters. This system incentivizes the creation of a more diverse workforce.

At Google, employee studies showed that women were less likely than men to submit their names for promotions. After Google brought this information to the attention of women employees, this discrepancy disappeared. Google now prides itself in the fact that they promote women and men at the same rates.

In August 2016, Apple announced plans to increase hiring of women and minorities. During the same announcement, they celebrated their official elimination of all gender pay gaps within the company. To maintain this, they have pledged to analyze and correct any gaps as they may arise in the future.

Amazon has also addressed its pay gap. Amazon boasts that women earn 99.9 percent of men’s salaries, explaining that the percentage fluctuates annually, so that it may not always reach a perfect 100 percent. However, Amazon has received criticism on its diversity reports for not including statistics on the percentage of women who make up their tech workforce. This discrepancy has led media to question whether Amazon has something to hide. Until Amazon releases more information, there is no way to know the state of female representation in their tech workforce.

What Does This Mean?

When compared to national averages, women are not as well-represented in the top tech companies. However, these companies provide benefits and services to their women and employees that are above and beyond the norm. Nonetheless, as the anecdotal experiences of the women at Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft have shown, a company can offer great benefits while still tolerating a discriminatory workplace environment.

Regardless, these companies need to develop new strategies  to address low women’s representation. Only time will tell how future policy, research, and incentives will impact women’s employment in the tech workforce.

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McNair Center Weekly Roundup

Innovation Weekly Roundup: 10/28/2016

Weekly Roundup is a McNair Center series compiling and summarizing the week’s most important Entrepreneurship and Innovation news.

Here is what you need to know about innovation this week:

FTC Takes an In-Depth Look at Patent Assertion Entities

Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP – Adam C. Hemlock, John E. Scribner and Lisa Marie Madalone, Lexology

FTC report on Patent Assertion Entities (PAE) delineates the two major business models employed: portfolio and litigation. As the name implies, litigation entities acquire licenses by filing suit. Portfolio entities tend to negotiate licenses over expansive patent portfolios often valued in the millions. Portfolio entities account for 80% of all PAE revenue despite holding only 9% of all licenses.

The FTC has proposed a variety of measures to deter what they deem “nuisance legislation.” The report found that discovery costs were the major factor in causing the accused to settle. In response, measures to reduce the burden of discovery were suggested. Changes reducing the incentive to settle will drastically change the patent litigation landscape since 83% of litigation PAE cases are settled within 18 months.


Three angles to look at Google’s Pixel phone: design patents, antitrust, copyright

Florian Mueller, FOSSPatent

Mueller examines the Google Pixel from the perspective of different areas of law: design patents, antitrust and copyright. Innovators must consider a variety of legal frameworks designed to protect them. However, these protections have also lowered the risk of innovation and prevent copycat designs from flooding the market. Mueller discusses the strategy Apple could take against Google for infringing design patents, but he also discusses why such an exertion might fail in light of Apple v. Samsung. This FOSSPatent post provides a broad overview of the regulatory environment tech innovators face.


What’s New with the Changes to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Rules of Practice

Eric Ball and Emily Gische, Attorneys at Fenwick & West writing for IPWatchdog

Soon after we ring in the new year, the Trademark Trials and Appeals Board will enact new inter and ex partes proceeding rules. These new rules become part of Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Key changes include limiting the number requests for document production to 75 and minimizing surprises right before trial begins. Surprise requests for substantial discovery are being clamped down on as a litigation strategy. Testimony can now be submitted through affidavit solely, as opposed to live recordings, and all filings must be electronic. In sum, these changes will accelerate TTAB proceedings.


Lex Machina releases data on design patent litigation showing strong correlation with trademark infringement actions

Steve Brachmann, IPWatchdog

The theme of this week is design patents and trademarks, and in accordance, Lex Machina has released a design patent litigation report. While overall patent litigation is decreasing, the number of design patent cases filed has remained consistent. This is still a small portion of all patent litigation, about 6 percent. 14.6 percent of design patent cases resulted in a claimant win as compared to 2.5 percent of claimant wins in other patent litigation.  Another key finding is that 36.4 percent of all design patent infringement cases also include a claim of trademark infringement, a rare claim in other filings.


Self-driving car startup cancels first product because dealing with regulators and lawyers “isn’t worth it”

Dave Gershgorn, Quartz Artificial Intelligence Reporter

Most innovation policy tends to focus on intellectual property regulation, but there is a host of additional regulations innovators must abide by depending on industry. With all the momentum surrounding self-driving cars and their go-to-market strategy, it was inevitable that the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration would attempt to ensure their safety. While such regulation may seem fair and necessary, the founder of one self-driving car startup has decided abiding by these requests is not worthwhile. We must question the ability of current regulation and enforcement to keep pace with innovation.

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McNair Center Weekly Roundup

Entrepreneurship Weekly Roundup: 10/28/2016

 Weekly Roundup is a McNair Center series compiling and summarizing the week’s most important Innovation and Entrepreneurship news.

Here is what you need to know about entrepreneurship this week:

Big Problems for Small Practices

Catherine Kirby, Research Assistant, McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Kirby examines the effects of the Affordable Care Act on entrepreneurship within health care. U.S. health care regulations currently hinder entrepreneurship among healthcare professionals, particularly for doctors seeking to establish private practices.
Kirby recommends that the U.S. implement policy changes that would better foster entrepreneurship among physicians. Measures like restructuring reimbursement rates and improving quality of care requirements would reduce the burdens that many private practices face and enable physicians to start small medical practices.


U.S. early stage investment holds up, late stage plunges

Joanna Glasner and Gené Teare, Contributors, CrunchBase

Venture capital investment slowed in the third quarter. Glasner and Teare write that estimates relying on end-of-quarter data may overstate declines in early stage investment.
Crunchbase compares its own projected funding totals with reported round count totals for the third quarter. Quarterly projected funds show bullish early stage investment. When factoring in projections, Crunchbase’s report for the third quarter finds that U.S. startups continue to enjoy high levels of strategic, seed and venture capital investment during seed and early stage rounds. However, there is a steep decline in late stage investment, with fewer companies raising late stage rounds and investors pouring less money into Series C and later rounds.


Startups get bought not sold

Ken Elefant, managing director at Intel Capital, PE Hub

Many entrepreneurs focus, sometimes shortsightedly, on the dream of reaching an IPO. As a result, start-ups often fail to develop important relationships with corporate investors. According to data from Dealogic, only five U.S.-based tech companies went public in the first eight months of 2016. To avoid going out of business or selling at a fire-sale price, Elefant recommends that entrepreneurs develop strong relationships with corporate investors early on so that a later search for an acquisition offer does not turn into a last-ditch attempt to save a sinking ship.
Corporate investors invest in companies for three reasons: to gain access to a technology, to break into other markets and to acquire. For start-ups, relationships with corporate investors offer viability and credibility. Additionally, these relationships provide development, support,  feedback and access to corporate engagement and funds. For companies that might not be on track for an IPO, strong relationships with corporate investors can lay the groundwork for an acquisition.


‘Shark Tank for Students’ Re-Defines Entrepreneurship

Christopher Putvinski, SAPVoice, Forbes

Putvinski focuses on a new television series, The Social Innovation Series. This “Shark Tank or a Y Combinator for students” asks aspiring entrepreneurs to address problems in health or wellness in their own communities.
The show grants $1,000 to students with promising and innovative ideas and a grand prize of $10,000 and the title of “SAP Teen Innovator” to the student with the winning idea.


How Blind Hiring Can Make Your Company More Inclusive

Frida Polli, Mattermark


In an editorial for Mattermark, Polli writes on how diverse companies outperform their non-diverse counterparts. Increasing diversity among employees not only promotes a more fair and equitable workplace environment but also offers a high return on investment for companies. See the McKinsey & Company Report on how diversity improves company performance. Polli suggests that “blind auditioning” is a possible solution for the lack of diversity in companies’ workforces. Using advanced analytics and assessment technologies, companies can ensure predictability and eliminate bias in their pre-hiring assessments of applicants. According to Polli, “improving diversity isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.”


And in startup news…

Google buys eye-tracking VR firm Eyelock

Grant Gross, Senior Editor for IDG News Service

Eyefluence is a California-based startup focused on eye-interaction technologies in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) headsets. Serial entrepreneurs Jim Marggraff and David Stiehr founded Eyefluence in 2013.
Google acquired the startup on Tuesday. The acquisition reflects Google’s growing interest in VR and AR technology. The deal further shows the growing potential of VR and AR for entrepreneurs interested in building successful tech startups.


Wavefront gathers $52 mil Series B

Iris Dorbian, Author, PE Hub

Another California-based tech-based startup, Wavefront, recently reported raising $52 billion in Series B funding. Investors include big names such as Sequoia Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures and Tenaya Capital.
Wavefront develops metrics monitoring services for cloud and modern application environments. Wavefront offers invaluable services to leaders in the software industry that rely on Cloud technology, such as Workday, Box, Lyft, Microsoft, Intuit and Groupon.