14 DAY TRIAL // Google has been dealing with an undiversified working environment for some time, and the company has been very open about the issue. A year back, they even published a workforce diversity report, which was a clear indicator of the unbalanced environment.
In an interview with Republican American, however, Nancy Lee, Google's diversity chief, reveals what she considers to be the main reason behind the lack of women and minorities in tech area: the fact that parents are reluctant to the idea of women techies.
Since Computer Science is generally viewed as a boys' thing, most parents, and mothers in particular, usually urge their daughters to concentrate on activities that they deem fit for girls.
"Parents don't see their young girls as wanting to pursue computer science and don't steer them in that direction," she argues.
It cannot be denied that, ever since the alarming results were made public, Google has been doing its very best to prove to the world that they are keen on changing the figures.
Their latest diversity plan requires no less than $150 million (€132 million), and one of their main initiatives is to arouse girls' interest in Computer Science and convince them that coding jobs are not just for boys.
The company has carried out a research on the issue
It should be mentioned that these are not mere assumptions from the company. Although not many details have been provided on the matter, Google's diversity chief has admitted that they conducted a thorough research that showed that it is generally parents who influence their children’s careers and, therefore, contribute to maintaining traditional gender roles.
Although the company is bound to do its very best to balance the number of women techies, it is the child rearing that plays a vital role in the career path that they will take later on in life.
Lee has also emphasized the concept of "brogrammer," which has been pushed forward by the media and which basically refers to the fact that, even nowadays, there is this wrong perception among Millennials that some jobs are exclusively for guys.
Having imparted the results of their in-depth analysis, Google’s workforce diversity unit hopes to convince more parents to give up their biased upbringing methods and encourage their girls to pursue a Computer Science degree.