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Flickr; jselgier2

Although sexism in the workplace is illegal and has been for a long time, certain industries still seem to be overtly dominated by men, especially the computer engineering field.

Pitch Interactive's Ri Liu and Pinterest engineer Tracy Chou have compiled data that shows just how large the gender gap is at some of today's biggest tech companies.

A few tech companies even have nearly 100 male engineers on their team while the number of female engineers sits in the single digits.

Dropbox, for example, has 134 men on its engineer team and only nine women. Mozilla is another extreme scenario, as Chou's data shows that there are 457 male engineers and only 43 female engineers.

Mozilla has the largest number of female engineers of all the companies on Liu and Chou's list, but it also has the biggest engineering team in general. Companies with smaller teams only had one female engineer on their staff, such as Activision, Learnist and Bitly.

Liu and Chou compiled a spreadsheet of the data and converted it into an infographic titled "We Can Do Better." The infographic visually represents the dramatic difference between the number of male and female engineers working in tech.

We took some of the numbers from Liu and Chou's spreadsheet and made a chart to illustrate the discrepancy between male and female engineers. The pink represents the number of female engineers while the blue symbolizes the total number of engineers at each company based on Liu and Chou's findings.

Lisa Eadicicco

The issue of sexism in the tech industry, unfortunately, sometimes manifests itself in more than just sheer numbers. Last month former GitHub engineer Julie Ann Horvath left the company after claiming that she had been bullied and felt threatened. Horvath told TechCrunch that a male engineer had even begun to rip her code out of projects after he had awkwardly tried to date her and had been shot down.

Last week, Locket CEO Yunha Kim got the following email when she tried to hire an engineer to work at the company:

I'm pretty happy with my current job, but if you're single I'd like to date you. Perhaps there are some unconventional ways to lure me away from my company (besides stock options) if you know what I mean :)

Chou and Li's data follows another recent report from HRAdvisors that showed there is a difference of between 20 and 50 percent in the number of male to female workers at tech companies in New York City.

SEE ALSO: GitHub Founder Tom Preston-Werner Suspended After Harassment Allegations

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Chart Shows The Massive Gender Gap At The Biggest Tech Companies

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Although sexism in the workplace is illegal and has been for a long time, certain industries still seem to be overtly dominated by men, especially the computer engineering field. Pitch Interactive's Ri Liu and Pinterest engineer Tracy Chou have compiled data that shows just how large the gender gap is at some of today's biggest tech companies.

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https://undergraduate-research.engineering.asu.edu/project/equity-in-engineering/

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Diversity

We believe that engineering is a creative and collaborative endeavor in which solutions arise from a rich diversity of perspective, discussion, and inquiry.

The MIT School of Engineering is committed to increasing diversity by fostering a community of opportunity and by providing the intellectual stimulation of a diverse school and campus environment, both in the classroom and where we work and live. We have made steady progress in recruiting and retaining faculty, students, and staff that have been traditionally underrepresented in engineering. Yet there is still much to be done as we continue to build a diverse and inclusive community.

For engineering undergraduates, the percentage of US-citizen or permanent-resident students who identified at least in part with an underrepresented minority was 629 (28 percent of 2,257) in fall 2016. For graduate students, there were 220 (12 percent of 1,856) in the same period. There were 1,407 (43 percent of 3,263) graduate nonresident alien students. For engineering faculty, those who identified with an underrepresented minority grew from 5 percent in fall 2004 to 8 percent in fall 2016 and those who identified as international grew from 45 percent in fall 2004 to 51 percent in fall 2016. (Note: this includes those who were born outside the U.S.).

The Office of Engineering Outreach Programs has developed and implemented a range of outreach programs and services to provide access to the intellectual stimulation of our campus community to a younger audience. These programs work with middle and high school students, including those from underrepresented segments, to equip them to enter and succeed in postsecondary engineering education. Their programs include Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science, Engineering Experience at MIT, MIT Online Science, Technology, and Engineering Community, and the Saturday Engineering Enrichment and Discovery Academy. There are a range of other K-12 STEM outreach programs across the MIT School of Engineering, including the Women's Technology Program the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams Program.

Equity

A range of government agencies provide additional resources for students and/or employees who have concerns of sexual misconduct or other forms of gender discrimination. Among those agencies, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) provides informational materials on civil rights compliance and equal opportunity in programs receiving NASA grants and other federal financial assistance.

In an effort to help students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics gain greater awareness of their rights under civil rights laws such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, NASA has provided the following documents to better inform and assist students (as well as administrators and faculty), in understanding and executing their rights, roles, and responsibilities under the law:

Nondiscrimination and Equal Opportunity in NASA Assisted Programs: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Related Laws

Equal Opportunity in NASA Assisted Programs

Title IX and STEM: Promising Practices

Title IX and STEM: A Guide for Conducting Title IX Self-Evaluations

See MIT's Institute Institute Community, Equity, and Diversity and Title IX websites for more resources and information on these topics.

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We believe that engineering is a creative and collaborative endeavor in which solutions arise from a rich diversity of perspective, discussion, and inquiry. The MIT School of Engineering is committed to increasing diversity by fostering a community of opportunity and by providing the intellectual stimulation of a diverse school and campus environment, both in the classroom and where we work and live.

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When it comes to gender equality on the job, everyone is well-versed in the discrepancy between men and women. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women earn 78 cents for every dollar earned by men. This is a result of decades of gender discrimination in the workplace. But while we can't change this fact, we can change the future. As a start, we need to examine where the bias originates. Then, we can propose a solution. And I will. Keep reading...

Many people relate the 78 cent statistic to failure in a company's employment or management structure. However, it really ties directly back to hiring, originating in the application and resume review stage. This is where bias towards gender and race is most prevalent. (And I should note that even bias towards educational background comes into play here, too, with SEO dominating sourcing activities, and as a result, many qualified candidates falling by the wayside because "Harvard" and "MIT" are not in their profile).

And it is clear that bias exists in the hiring funnel and that this is a widely known issue, as we've seen diversity solutions sweeping the corporate world in recent times, including the addition of many diversity-focused roles in organizations. While there is no silver bullet to immediately fixing a lack of diversity initiatives in the corporate world, we can pinpoint a very viable solution by taking a look back in history.

Learn more about diversity and inclusion initiatives you can carry out by attending our June 8th webinar with Twitter. Register here.

Where orchestras meet recruiting

In the 1970s, the top five symphony orchestras in the U.S. were 95% male (and in Europe, the percentage was even higher!). This stark percentage illuminates an institutional bias, and this number is akin to what we are facing during the current tech boom for both women and minorities in the engineering sector in particular. (More on that soon).

In order to combat this clear bias, orchestras instituted a technique in which applicants would be judged exclusively on their merit. This disruptive technique, now 45 years old, is the blind assessment. By having musicians audition behind a screen or curtain, women finally received an unbiased review.

The study " Orchestrating Impartiality " dives deeply into the data resulting from this new method. From the 1970s to 1990s, the use of blind screens helped to increase the proportion of women in orchestras from 5% to over 25%! And the rate at which women advanced to the next round of interviews increased by 50%. Using blind screens also more than doubled the likelihood that a woman would be hired at the end of the audition.

What we have learned from this study

Since both musicians and engineers produce an output (music and coding, respectively) that can be judged without needing to see the applicant face-to-face, engineers become an excellent demographic on which to institute gender and race-blind assessments.

Today, diverse candidates are often filtered out of the hiring process during the preliminary screening stage. Like orchestras, we now have the ability to execute screens and provide blind feedback to engineering managers in a quantitative format. Meaning, managers can directly review analytical aptitude and coding ability without the candidate's identity being exposed. By hiding candidates' identities, hiring managers will choose candidates to move forward in the interviewing process based entirely on their abilities. This removes both unconscious and deliberate bias from the hiring process at the preliminary screening stage, allowing talented individuals to be advanced exclusively on merit.

Conquering bias early on is your best bet

But, I know what you must be thinking-what happens once the person advances beyond the preliminary stage and must then come onsite for an in-person interview? Meeting face-to-face is an important part of the structured interview process, and therefore it shouldn't be neglected. Doesn't bias have the potential of taking over at this point? The quick answer is that, yes, it is difficult to mitigate bias at this stage. However, let's keep in mind that if the early stage remains as a blind format, this lessens the total amount of bias that can enter the hiring process overall. Also, data can be tracked to measure the onsite interviews, such as comparing the ratio of diverse candidates who make it to this later stage with the number of these candidates who are extended an offer. This will allow your recruiting team to more easily identify whether there is a biased interviewer in the hiring funnel...of which you can then take action accordingly.

Your next step

As we look to change the landscape of the engineering community, it appears quite obvious that the preliminary stage is where bias really takes its toll. Luckily, blind assessments serve as a solution.

To facilitate the implementation of blind interviewing in your company, consider using a platform, like Buzz Technologies, where preliminary round blind assessments are executed... and are executed by external interviewers. Using external interviewers helps to further ensure that the process is as unbiased as possible, since these folks aren't invested or have interest in the makeup of your company or team. Therefore, you can assure you're getting the most qualified candidates through the door, without gender or race being a factor.

With so much talk and focus today on diversity and inclusion initiatives, it's crucial that you keep up with your competitors and take the necessary steps to position your company as fair and inclusive. In doing so, you'll shape a dynamic employer brand that serves to attract and retain the best talent in the industry.
Want to learn more about blind assessments? Check out our June 8th webinar "How Twitter's Head of Talent Acquisition Approaches Diversity and Inclusion." Simply click the button below to register!

Jack Hogan is a founding member and Head of Partnerships at Buzz Technologies. Originally educated in accounting, he realized his real passion was People and improving the hiring status quo. In his spare time, he can be found rooting for The Golden State Warriors and The San Francisco Giants as well as enjoying some of the amazing Bay Area restaurants.

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Engineering Gender and Race Equality: How to Make Your Interview Process Fair | Greenhouse

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However, let's keep in mind that if the early stage remains as a blind format, this lessens the total amount of bias that can enter the hiring process overall Conquering bias early on is your best bet But, I know what you must be thinking-what happens once the person advances beyond the preliminary stage and must then come onsite for an in-person interview?

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http://advance.osu.edu/resources/gender-equity-and-stemm/

http://www.aauw.org/research/why-so-few/

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While women make up only 14.8% of the engineering workforce in the U.S., at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, women make up close to half of the junior and senior undergraduate classes. Dean Joseph Helble, discusses the ways his school has addressed the gender parity challenge.

Every engineering dean at every university in this country would like to build a more diverse engineering faculty, and it remains a challenge for all of us... In our early classes, such as our project-based introduction to engineering or our introductory computer coding class, half of the sections are taught by women. And now, because we've got large numbers of talented women in our student population, we draw the teaching assistants for these classes from our senior undergraduate population rather than our graduate student population. A decade ago, 20% of the TAs in these entry-level classes were female. Now it's approaching 50%."

Helble discusses the school's efforts to remove barriers to participation and success for all students, his experience as an engineering student, and the importance of connecting engineering with a liberal arts education as they relate to his school's efforts to engage women.
Read more about how Helble is helping to increase the percentage of women in engineering classes and professions at Makezine

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Gender Equality in Engineering Education - Impact Design Hub

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While women make up only 14.8% of the engineering workforce in the U.S., at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, women make up close to half of the junior and senior undergraduate classes. Dean Joseph Helble, discusses the ways his school has addressed the gender parity challenge.

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Hard Hats
Holding something - like blueprints
Professional dress - shirt & tie
Almost all male
Near some type of structure
Look like normal people
Minion - they build stuff