The latest data on diversity in tech was recently released and the results are all too familiar—progress is slow, and women of color are still underrepresented.
The Top Companies for Women Technologists report by AnitaB.org, a group that works for the advancement of women in computing, is a national program that identifies key trends around the representation of women technologists in the workforce. The group publishes the data every year before its Grace Hopper Celebration conference.
AnitaB.org surveyed 80 companies across industries including tech, media, and finance. Overall, the organization found that this year roughly 24 percent of women held technical roles, about a 1 percent increase from last year.
The report shows that representation grew at nearly all career levels, including the executive level, where women in these roles rose to 18.5 percent from 16.4 percent in 2017.
Despite small gains for women in tech, growth in these roles for women of color remains stagnant or slow. The report found that Black women make up 5.5 percent of women in technical roles, while, 4.9 percent are Latina, 2 percent are multicultural, and 0.3 percent Native American and 0.2 percent are Pacific Islander.
White women make up the majority of women in tech at 45.2 percent. Asian women come in at 39.5 percent.
Companies with a formal policy aimed at eliminating gender bias in performance reviews, the report found, are more likely to hire the largest numbers of women technologists.
Nine tech companies were highlighted for having the highest representation of women technologists, including Google, Airbnb, ThoughtWorks, XO Group, Ultimate Software, Accenture, Google, IBM and SAP.
