Apple is just as much a men's club as other tech companies.
CEO Tim Cook posted online a report on the diversity of the 98,000 employees at the tech company. The company is 70 percent men and 30 percent women.
Cook stated in the post, "I'm not satisfied with the numbers on this page. They're not new to us, and we've been working hard for quite some time to improve them. We are making progress, and we're committed to being as innovative in advancing diversity as we are in developing our products."
With women only making up 30 percent of the workforce, Apple is sadly equal to other tech firms that have released diversity information. As Tech Times has previously reported, Twitter and Google had a similar 30 percent female workers. Facebook just surpasses them with 31 percent. Yahoo, with 37 percent women, and Pinterest, with 40 percent women, fare better. But eBay remains on top, with 44 percent women.
Apple's gender gap worsens when you look at only leadership roles, with 28 percent women, or at tech roles, with a mere 20 percent being women. This leaves non-tech roles to have a larger percentage, at 35 percent female. Other tech companies saw a similar drop in women workers in leadership and tech positions.
Women are estimated to be about 48.3 percent of the world population.
Cook added, almost as an apology, "Apple is also a sponsor of the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest LGBT rights organization, as well as the National Center for Women & Information Technology, which is encouraging young women to get involved in technology and the sciences. The work we do with these groups is meaningful and inspiring. We know we can do more, and we will."
Looking at racial diversity, Apple did somewhat better than others in the tech industry. The company reported its employees are 55 percent white in the U.S., which rises to 64 percent when you focus on leadership positions. Tech positions are 54 white and non-tech positions are 56 percent white.This is more diverse than Facebook's 57 percent white workforce and Twitter's 59 percent, as well as eBay and Google's 61 percent, though not as racially diverse at Yahoo's 50 percent white workforce.
Just like the other tech companies that have released diversity data in the last few months, Apple limited the racial percentages to the United States only. Considering the use of overseas technical support staff and programmers, it is no surprise that these companies did not offer global data.
Photo: Jean-François Gornet
