Hi everyone,
Pine and I had this exchange in diversity which I thought might be of interest more
broadly so reposting here.
Best,
Victoria
Begin forwarded message:
From: Victoria Coleman <vcoleman(a)wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: How to increase the diversity of Wikimedia technical contributors and
staff?
Date: August 9, 2017 at 2:33:03 AM GMT-4
To: Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com>
Cc: "Addressing gender equity and exploring ways to increase the participation of
women within Wikimedia projects." <gendergap(a)lists.wikimedia.org>rg>, Angel Lewis
<alewis(a)wikimedia.org>rg>, Maggie Dennis <mdennis(a)wikimedia.org>
Pine,
thank you for bringing up this important topic. The Google internal memo certainly
brought the diversity issue in sharp relief. I don’t profess to be an expert on diversity
in STEM but I do want to share some thoughts based on my own professional experience as
well as some academic research that I have recently come across.
The first thing to note is participation of women in computer science is actually
growing. For example, in 2015 Computer Science was the top major for women at Stanford
(
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-women-technology-stanford-idUSKCN0S32F020…
<http://www.reuters.com/article/us-women-technology-stanford-idUSKCN0S32F020151009>).
I serve on the Advisory Board of the Computer Engineering Department at Santa Clara
University and although the numbers are not as striking, the proportion of women has been
steadily increasing. Of course women represent only one dimension of the diversity issue
but perhaps the patterns here may be instructive for other groups. So I don’t think this
is a “pipeline” issue any more. I am sure it once was (certainly it was when I started my
career) but it is not so now. So if more women and minorities enter STEM professions why
is it that we have so little representation of these groups in mid and senior levels?
Well, the answer seems to be that people in these groups leave STEM careers in much
greater numbers than other groups. So it seems to be a problem of retention vs intake.
Academic research that I have recently come across from UC Irvine, MIT, Rice and McGill
makes for interesting reading as we try to unpack why this is the case. In [1], the
authors make a shocking (to me) statement:
“The field of engineering is a particularly robust site for understanding gendered
processes of professional socialization because it remains the most gender-segregated
field among STEM occupations at all career stages”
Why this is the case is certainly a topic that merits both research, analysis and action.
In [2] the researchers found that unfairness drives turnover and that unfairness is most
pronounced in the tech industry especially in women of all backgrounds and
underrepresented men of color. [3] argues that professional role confidence, in other
words an individual’s confidence in their ability to successfully fulfill the roles,
competencies, and identity features of a profession, and women’s lack of this confidence ,
compared to men, reduces their likelihood of remaining in engineering majors and careers.
These are my thoughts and I warmly welcome those of others in the community. We have a
lot of work to do to understand the diversity dynamics in our communities. The Foundation
is committed and actively engaged in understanding the diversity challenges within staff
and the volunteer community. Some of our initiatives are captured in
https://office.wikimedia.org/wiki/Diversity_and_Inclusion
<https://office.wikimedia.org/wiki/Diversity_and_Inclusion> but I am sure there is
lot more that can and should be done.
Best regards,
Victoria
[1] C. Seron, S.S. Silbey, E. Cech, B. Rubineau, Persistence Is Cultural: Professional
Socialization and the Reproduction of Sex Segregation, Work and Occupations, Vol. 43(2)
178-214, 2016
[2] Tech Leavers Study: A first-of-its-kind analysis of why people voluntarily left jobs
in tech, Ford Foundation, Kapor Center for Social Impact, April 27, 2017
[3] E. Cech, B. Rubineau, S. Silbey, C. Serron, Professional Role Confidence and Gendered
Persistence in Engineering, American Sociological Review, Vol 76(5), 641-666, 2011
On Aug 6, 2017, at 10:31 PM, Pine W
<wiki.pine(a)gmail.com <mailto:wiki.pine@gmail.com>> wrote:
I read the unofficial Google internal memo that has been the subject of some controversy,
and upon reading it my Wikipedian-trained instincts were to wonder where the citations
were that should, if they were available, have supported numerous assertions that were
made in that memo. I'm not an expert in diversity -- and I suspect that the author of
that memo isn't, either. In the absence of verifiable and reliable sources, I'm
skeptical of numerous assertions that were made in that document.
This leads me a question that I've had in mind for awhile. How can we increase the
diversity of Wikimedia technical contributors and staff? I'm referring both to gender
diversity and racial diversity (people of African descent appear to be significantly
under-represented).
My unscientific hunch is that what would help is increasing people at young ages to
consider a career in a science, technology, engineering, or math ("STEM") field,
and then continuing to support their interest from elementary school through college.
(Personal story: I was a poor performer at math in middle school and at one point I
emotionally gave up on the subject, yet I did significantly better when I reached college
and (a) had instructors whose styles were more compatible with how I learn and (b) had
classroom environments that were more supportive of learning.)
I don't know to what extent Wikimedia should be involved in encouraging people at
early ages to become interested and stay involved with STEM, and I think that we should
ask ourselves if perhaps this is an area in which we should make some financial and time
investments, with the goal of facilitating development of diverse candidates into
engineering and technical roles for the community as well as organizations like WMDE and
WMF. We probably shouldn't be steering people at young ages to make long-term
commitments to STEM or the Wikimedia ecosystem, but perhaps we could take some actions
that would at least encourage them if they seem to be interested in STEM to continue their
academic growth in those domains. I don't know if there is data that explains how
gender and racial disparities develop and how to address them, but my hunch is that the
earlier that the issues are addressed, the better.
I don't know what other options to suggest; perhaps people here will have some ideas.
I'd particularly like to invite Victoria to the conversation; perhaps she can comment
sometime in the next several days (probably not for several hours, since this is still
Sunday evening on the US west coast).
Hoping to hear some thoughtful discussion,
Pine