A recent report from the Ascend Foundation finds that in spite of Silicon Valley’s desire to boost inclusion and diversity, substantial barriers still exist. The report, titled “The Illusion of Asian Success”, looks at Asian, Hispanic, Black, and other minority women in the leadership pipeline of San Francisco Bay Area technology companies. The survey indicates that ethnicity and not gender is the most crucial factor impeding promotions and career advancement.
Asian and Hispanic women are the most affected, with Asians the most likely group to be hired but the least likely group to be promoted to executive or management positions. Hispanic and Black populations have suffered an overall decline in the professional workforce in spite of efforts to diversify workforces and hire underrepresented populations. Gender still plays a large part, with even white males being 47% more likely to be an executive compared to white women.
Ascend executive advisor and co-author of the study, Buck Gee, talked about the report’s findings in a press release, saying that, “When we used the Executive Parity Index to compare the numbers of minorities as executives to their numbers in the workforce, it was clear that that efforts to promote more Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics have made no meaningful impact to the minority glass ceiling. That said, we saw progress made by white women, so we know tech companies can change.”
The report is assembled from publicly-available data and covers from 2007 to 2015, featuring the aggregate data of companies like Yelp, Twitter, Intel, Google, HP, Cisco, Facebook, and Apple. Companies are rated using Ascend’s Executive Parity Index (EPI), which compares a company’s diversity in entry-level and executive workforces, and the Management Parity Index (MPI), which determines the flow of diversity from entry-level positions to middle management.
