Building diverse teams creates better products and stronger companies
This site began in 2014 focused on hiring more women in the tech industry, as I'd never worked at a tech company that had any more than 20% women (and most were woefully less than that). The conversation has evolved (rightly so) to advocacy for inclusion of other gender identities, people of color, LGBTQAI+, people with different abilities, and more. We knew even then that we'd like to see more people with diverse experiences and identities in design, product, project management, community, finance, and leadership positions in general, as it creates a healthier workplace, and better products and services. A diverse workplace is proven to get better results, more accurately reflects your customer/client base, and ensures a wider range of experience. Though some of the language is definitely geared towards women, I have updated and expanded this collection of data, metrics, and studies to speak to inclusion and equity efforts more broadly. I have also inserted dates for articles - I hope this resource is helpful!
"Women account for fewer than a quarter of the engineers at most tech companies. Technical positions are more likely to lead to senior roles at tech companies." - NYTimes, 2013
"Only 11% of all engineers in the U.S. are women, according to Department of Labor. The situation is a better among computer programmers, but not much. Women account for only 26% of all American coders." - Wired, 2013
"[An] aspect of the gender-in-tech problem that I rarely see acknowledged: the heavily gendered casting of roles within companies -- or in other words, the way that tech companies with female employees tend to place them in "people" roles, while men dominate in technical positions...Coders are lionized in the tech sector, and are compensated for their technical skills with higher wages and positional power -- so women without coding chops are automatically less likely to advance to senior positions or command the highest salaries." - Lauren Bacon, 2013
- FastCoExist, 2014, Anita Borg: The Case For Investing In Women
- McKinsey & Company / Why Diversity Matters, 2015
"...Research from Yale that had scientists presented with application materials from a student applying for a lab manager position and who intended to go on to graduate school. Half the scientists were given the application with a male name attached, and half were given the exact same application with a female name attached. Results found that the "female" applicants were rated significantly lower than the 'males' in competence, hireability, and whether the scientist would be willing to mentor the student." - Scientific American, 2012
'The problem is that the idea that women are not as good is so deeply embedded in the mind of so many people in positions of power, that it is not even recognized. It's a belief system that leads one to automatically and without awareness, connect "women" with "lower standards" and "woman as good as a man" with "the exception." ...And its cumulative effects are profound. It's why women must be 2.5 times as good as men to be considered equally competent. It's why holding blind auditions for orchestras increase women's chances of advancing to final rounds by 50%. It's why professors who receive requests for mentorship from prospective students are less likely to respond if the request comes from a woman. It's why women are hired and promoted based on proof, while men are hired and promoted based on potential.' - Jessica Nordell, 2015
And women are frequently silenced or talked over: "Studies show that women only speak about 25% of the time in corporate meetings. Similarly, while analyzing lectures in Tech, the conclusion was that men have a 42.6% chance of being interrupted, while women stand a 89.3% chance. Men interrupt other men about twice every 3 minutes, while women get interrupted between 2.6 and 2.8 times for the same period." - Andressa Chiara, 2017. You can test this out in your own workplace with the app "are men talking too much?"
Research finds nonbinary job seekers face clear bias in hiring processes: "More than 80 percent of nonbinary people believed that identifying as nonbinary would hurt their job search...(and) test resume with pronouns received less interest and fewer interview invitations" - 3 phase study by business.com, 2023.
The idea is not to hire people just because of their gender or other identities. Hire women & non-binary people that are amazing at their jobs. Own the responsibility of actually getting the word out to the widest pool of candidates possible. Employee referrals may fill your open roles, but they have been shown to tend to benefits white men most (Bloomberg article, 2023)(paywalled). If you're only getting male candidates, perhaps the problem lies with either how you're describing the position, or the pool of candidates who are actually seeing the job post. And of note: if you have an employee referral program, it may make sense to review whether it actually works to get you a diversity of candidates (or violates US law) - HBR has ideas on how to structure employee referrals more equitably, 2018.
A growing body of academic research highlights the ongoing backlash against DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs in tech—despite overwhelming evidence that they help marginalized professionals thrive.
In early 2025, the Trump administration launched a coordinated dismantling of DEI programs in federal agencies, public universities, and government contracts.
As corporate and federal support for DEI shrinks, the professionals it was built to protect face renewed vulnerability. Yet academic research (and lived experience!) proves that intentional, sustained, and inclusive policy still matters.
We can’t afford silence. We need:
Get more women & non-binary folks in during the interview process. Even if your post isn't overly bro-oriented, are you sending cues that your workplace has the potential to be unwelcoming, or even toxic?
*NOTE: Hopefully, this gendered language issue transforms and evolves in the coming years - this is simply an effort to identify what affects applicants NOW, and to build up and expand the applicant pool for the widest funnel possible.
Average Description: We are a dominant engineering firm that boasts many leading clients. We are determined to stand apart from the competition.
BETTER: We are a community of engineers who have effective relationships with many satisfied clients. We are committed to understanding the engineer sector intimately.
Average Description: Strong communication and influencing skills. Ability to perform individually in a competitive environment. Superior ability to satisfy customers and manage company's association with them.
BETTER: Proficient oral and written communications skills. Collaborates well in a team environment. Sensitive to clients' needs, can develop warm client relationships.
Average Description: Direct project groups to manage project progress and ensure accurate task control. Determine compliance with client's objectives.
BETTER: Provide general support to project team in a manner complimentary to the company. Help clients with construction activities.
(above language examples excerpted from ERE, 2013)
Don't like these examples? Write your own!
The main point here is that language matters. Women & non-binary people can be (and are) all of these things in the "average" sections: competitive, dominant, and strong, but it's worth noting that this wording is often a cue for an atmosphere and culture that is unwelcoming. (H/T Thomas H. Ptacek for a critical conversation about these words as "gendered," and highlighted the following points: not removing words such as competitive, especially if the environment IS competitive, and you're seeking candidates that thrive in that environment, and that paying attention to the language you use, and what it signals, is critical to finding great candidates).
There's no universal "right answer" for the exact wording that is best. Look back at your company's mission, values, and goals for guideposts on the best ways to explain what you're looking for, and to entice people to your company and its culture.
"If companies look at this from a business perspective, they are literally flushing resources down the toilet if the person they recruited, interviewed, hired, on-boarded, and employed for two years quits because the environment is (at best) not a fit or (at worst) blatantly sexist. That's the real leaky pipe. All of the resources that go into finding and hiring women (and other underrepresented groups, but I can speak to my experience best) should very quickly be rerouted to retention and promotion." - Kate Buckholz, Wired, 2017
"The first step, and the most important step, to improving diversity is to make sure that you are treating the women and people of color who already work at your company very well. This includes: appreciate their contributions, assign them to high impact projects, bring up their accomplishments in high level meetings, pay them equitably, provide chances to grow their skillset, listen to them, help them prepare for promotions, give them good managers, believe them about their experiences, and generally support them." - Rachel Thomas, 2016
"Counter inappropriate behavior and social stigmatization: Comments like "she's a tough bitch", "why don't you smile more?", "she's bossy", "when are you having children?" happen to women all the time, and are much more harmful than they seem. The mosquito bite metaphor works great for me here. One bite is annoying, a few bits are irritating, but a lot of bites are intolerable. It is easy to dismiss one or two inappropriate comments, a dozen gets very tiresome, but many is like death by a 1000 paper cuts. When you hear inappropriate comments, or if you are reproducing them yourself, pause and question yourself, would you make those comments to a man? If not, stop. If it wasn't you, explain to the person who said them why they are inappropriate." - Andressa Chiara, 2017
"Male-dominated management teams have been found to tolerate, sanction, or even expect sexualized treatment of workers, which can lead to a culture of complicity. People may chuckle over misbehavior rather than calling it out, for example, or they may ostracize harassed women, privately ashamed of not having spoken up. Reducing power differentials can help, not only because women are less likely than men to harass but also because their presence in management can change workplace culture." - Harvard Business Review, 2017
"You need to be aiming for a 50/50 men-to-women ratio." - Allison Sawyer, The Wall Street Journal, 2014
The point here is to be data-driven, because you can't improve upon things which you don't collect metrics on. This 50/50 ratio leaves out non-binary, and other marginalized genders, so, take the 50/50 gender split example with a grain of salt. You're business will be stronger for focusing on inclusion, and lots of folks need / want jobs.
"Many companies are alienating the qualified women who want to work for them, and who they want to hire, during the interview process itself...what the executives don't give as much thought to are some of the simplest determinants of how successful a company will be in hiring diverse candidates. Will women have any input in the hiring process? Will the interview panels be diverse? Will current female employees be available to speak to candidates about their experiences? Many times, the answer to each of these questions is no, and the resistance to make simple changes in these areas is striking." - Katharine Zaleski, Power To Fly / New York Times, 2017
"At Slack, the absence of a single diversity leader seems to signal that diversity and inclusion aren't standalone missions, to be shunted off to a designated specialist, but are rather intertwined with the company's overall strategy. [To this end,] Slack rebuilt the interview process. For each role, the team determined what characteristics and skills a successful candidate should have---communication skills, say, or capacity for teamwork. Then, for each of these, they defined what information they needed to assess those skills, and then devised a list of behavioral questions expressly aimed at sussing out that information. [Additionally], interviewers were asked to do mock interviews with existing employees, the way doctors practice on fake patients. The interviewers themselves became more skilled---and less likely to introduce biases that could filter out good candidates." - How Slack Got Ahead in Diversity, Jessica Nordell / The Atlantic, 2018
"To be effective in evaluating candidates, you first have to know what you're looking for. Define target criteria upfront and use a structured interview process to consistently evaluate candidates on these criteria and to mitigate unconscious bias from creeping in. It can be easy to justify biased decisions post-hoc by changing criteria. Writing down the exact language, prompts, a grading rubric, etc., is helpful to make sure that candidates are evaluated consistently. Having a consistent set of target criteria will help prevent unconscious bias." - Diversity at Startups by Homebrew, last updated 2020
Reach out to women's groups, and strongly consider hiring a female recruiter who is skilled in recruiting female applicants. "...women in technology find themselves outnumbered and often marginalized, they've responded by becoming highly organized...there's a huge network of women in tech, and they're working together to transform the industry --- and each other's careers." - Washington Post, 2014
Invest in the future. "Give to build a pipeline and community of talent. Sponsor events, underwrite scholarships, pay fellows or interns of the communities you are trying to reach. Start a mentoring programs. Underwrite trainings for young developers, returning workers such as mothers, and female STEM students. To quote Anthea: 'Mid-level superstars don't just magically appear from heaven, they are nurtured and grown.' Help grow them. That means always, always, always give more than you take." - Katrin Verclas, 2014
Look to expand your networks. "Primary networks mainly include people with similar interests and backgrounds. If you are a founder seeking diversity in your team and investors, find ways to expand your networks. The head of software development at Joyus is a woman and 60% of her team is female. She looked in different places to recruit diverse talent." - Theresia Gouw, No More 'Pipeline' Excuses, Wall Street Journal, 2014
"In a society that systematically excludes and marginalizes, bringing new voices to the table requires a deep commitment to relationship building. It takes work. It takes time. It takes trust. And it is totally worth it, resulting in better decision making, better products and better performance." - Christie George, 2018
"The tech industry may have a problem with women, but women don't have a problem with technology."
- Ann Friedman, Washington Post, 2014