Silicon Valley is in love with “disruption” — ideas and practices that subvert the established order. So here’s one: how about telling rich white men it is up to them to make tech companies more diverse?
To some the idea will sound reminiscent of a headline in satirical publication The Onion: “Man Finally Put In Charge of Struggling Feminist Movement”. But there is a serious point. In sectors where women, ethnic minorities and other groups are already under-represented, is it fair to impose on them the extra burden of fighting for equality? For women with young children, there is a double bind: the caring responsibilities that make it hard to juggle work and family make it harder to find time to appear on panels about women in tech.
There are many reasons why the tech world does not reflect the wider population, from homophily — where those in power appoint and promote people with similar backgrounds — to the prevalence of a peculiar type of male-dominated geek culture or the fact that many companies lionise long hours. (Witness the Soylent craze, where twentysomethings at start-ups boast of drinking vitamin shakes to save time on meals.)