AnitaB.org CEO on Diversity Efforts: "We're Doing It Wrong"

In a recent contribution to Mashable’s “Voices of Women in Tech” series, AnitaB.org President and CEO Brenda Darden Wilkerson pulls no punches. Addressing the persistent inability of technology companies to close the gender and diversity gaps in their workforce numbers, she comes right out and calls the industry’s effort to date a broad failure.

“If the tech industry continues to ‘improve’ at the current rate, it will take decades before we reach gender parity, and even longer before our workforce accurately reflects the population at large,” Brenda says.

But, she adds, we’re never going to fix the problem by simply trying harder, or throwing more dollars at the problem. The tech industry, she says, needs to rethink the entire way we’re addressing diversity and inclusion.

After facing some uncomfortable truths about our organization’s own internal diversity progress, she came to a strong conclusion: “All of us have to be brave and admit that what we’ve been doing is simply not working.” She suggests that in order to make real progress, companies “need to face the real data, scrap fruitless initiatives, and take an entirely new approach. This is no time to give in to diversity fatigue!”

Read the full column to learn Brenda’s thoughts on new approaches to improve diversity.

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