Google has pulled back the curtain on its diversity records. The company says it's "not where [it wants] to be when it comes to diversity."
On its official blog, Google shared this chart detailing the genders and ethnicities of its employees. Women make up only 30 percent of Google's workforce and only 17 percent of its tech division. More than 60 percent of the tech company's employees are white.
The company goes on to explain why it thinks Google lacks diversity. "Women earn roughly 18 percent of all computer science degrees in the United States. Blacks and Hispanics make up under 10 percent of U.S. college grads and collect fewer than 5 percent of degrees in CS majors, respectively."
To its credit, the company is working to bring diversity to Google and computer science in general. Google says it has donated $40 million to women's computer science organizations and has worked with "historically black colleges and universities" to improve computer science education.
PBS spoke with Telle Whitney, the CEO of the Anita Borg Institute, a not-for-profit organization that encourages women in tech. Whitney says she's not impressed with the numbers. "The numbers are not good. Google's technical workforce is made up of only 17 percent women, which is lower even than the abysmal norm of 20-24 percent."
And Forbes quotes one Web developer who says diversity could be helped by a change in perspective. "There are two reasons why there aren't many women and minorities in tech; access and expectations. A lot of us didn't go to top 10 universities in Northern California or know four of five VCs offhand or intern at Fortune 500 tech companies."
The New York Times reports this release comes amid increasing pressure for tech companies to share their diversity numbers. Although Facebook and Yahoo have yet to reveal such information, Google says it hopes releasing the data will "start a dialogue."
