Women in tech: Four charts which show the lack of diversity at eight top tech companies
Apple is the latest high-profile tech company to release data on its employees' gender and ethnicity and it’s not a great outlook when it comes to showing diversity in the tech industry.
Chief executive Tim Cook has said he’s “not satisfied” with the numbers. He’s not the only one who should be feeling that way, however.
Some of the biggest tech companies around have released similar data in recent months and the picture across all of them is the same – the industry is dominated by white men.
While Cook did point to female executive appointments – including Angela Ahrendts, Lisa Jackson and Denise Young-Smith and most recently Sue Wagner who joined Apple’s board of directors – as progress in improving the number of women in the business, the majority of Apple’s employees, from those working in tech roles to its leadership team, are white men.
Overall, between around 30-40 per cent of staff are women at eight of some of the biggest companies in tech with eBay leading the way- if only slightly- with 42 per cent female staff.
Non-tech wider business roles, such as operations and HR, fare much better with a more even gender split. In fact, it's the area where at least one company employs more women than men and Yahoo, led by female chief exec Marissa Meyer, blazes a trail on 52 per cent.
When it comes to tech roles and leadership positions however, it's a different story, and women have yet to make such inroads in these key business areas.
eBay again leads the way with the highest number of women in tech roles, but only with just under a quarter. Twitter has just 10 per cent of its tech roles filled by women.
Cook's female hires at Apple have made a slight difference that helps it come neck and neck with eBay for the most amount of women employed in leadership roles, however this still only stands at just 28 per cent.
Chart note: Ethnic data has not been included as it refers only to employees in the US. Gender breakdown applies to each business's global operations.