White and male, Google releases diversity data

In a groundbreaking disclosure, Google revealed how very white and male its workforce is -- just 2 per cent of its Googlers are black, 3 per cent are Hispanic, and 30 per cent are women.
The search giant said yesterday that the transparency about its workforce -- the first disclosure of its kind in the largely white, male tech sector -- is an important step toward change.
"Simply put, Google is not where we want to be when it comes to diversity," Google Inc. Senior vice president Laszlo Bock wrote in a blog.
The numbers were compiled as part of a report that major US employers must file with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Companies are not required to make the information public.

The gender divide is based on the roughly 44,000 people Google employed throughout the world at the start of this year. The company didn't factor about 4,000 workers at its Motorola Mobility division, which is being sold to China's Lenovo Group for USD 2.9 billion. The racial data is limited to Google's roughly 26,600 workers in the US as of August 2013.
Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg recently said the social networking company is headed toward disclosure as well, but it was important to share the data internally first.

Apple Inc, Twitter, Hewlett-Packard Co and Microsoft Corp did not respond immediately to queries about possible plans to disclose data.

Bock said Google has been working to diversify, not just its offices but in the broader tech sector. Since 2010, the firm has given more than USD 40 million to organisations working to bring computer science education to women and girls, he said.
The company also is working with historically black colleges and universities to elevate coursework and attendance in computer science, he said.