US President Barack Obama wants to help bridge the gap in ethnic diversity and races in the technology industry, asking support from the private sector to do so.
The White House announced on Tuesday that he had mediated in a number of new initiatives that include major technology companies, such as Amazon and Microsoft, in addition to well-known venture capital firms, departments and faculties of engineering at major universities that have pledged concrete plans to promote diversity within their organizations.
The announcement came as part of the "Day Display" Demo Day first of the Obama administration, an event which meets the founders of start-up companies from different walks of life and different parts of the United States in the White House to present their innovations.
Unlike traditional events of this kind, as it seeks emerging companies to attract potential financiers, entrepreneurs work during Demo Day special White House to convince Obama their ideas to highlight their innovations, and increase awareness of the struggles of minorities underrepresented in the technical field ,, such as women and non-whites, in For the launch of the company.
Today does not exceed the proportion of start-ups, backed by venture capital firms, led by black Americans only 1%, while the percent of companies founded by women 3%.
Obama said at a news conference during the Demo Day event at the White House that these statistics must be changed to ensure the survival of the United States at the forefront of innovation in all parts of the world.
He admitted that finding capital difficult for any entrepreneur called his company, which is "more difficult if a woman or a minority under-represented and struggling often just to get a seat at the table."
Obama praised the efforts of big companies, such as Intel and Pinterest, which recently launched their own diversity initiatives, and stressed that there is a lot of work to be done.
In addition, it was announced commitments from 40 of the venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz, and Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, as well as more than a dozen technology companies, such as Amazon, Microsoft, Xerox, which vowed to take new measures to ensure the employment of different ethnicities and races.
These companies rely differences, known as the "Rooney rule" adopted "the National Football League," the US, which requires a set of companies and at least one candidate from female or non-white for each executive position that large. Facebook and Pinterest have adopted similar policies recently.
In addition, the administration got commitments from institutional investors to provide more than $ 11 billion to increase the diversity of its directors. He promised more than 100 engineering schools in the Dean Mmilosh to take steps to attract and retain a diverse student bodies.
These ads come at a time when being checking on technology industry companies to its lack of diversity in the staff. On average, women's labor force in the technology industry ratio does not exceed 30%, despite the fact that women make up 59% of the total US workforce, and 51% of the total population, according to data from the US Census Bureau.
No comments:
Post a Comment