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@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@gmail.com Cc: "Addressing gender equity and exploring ways to increase the participation of women within Wikimedia projects." gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org, Angel Lewis alewis@wikimedia.org, Maggie Dennis mdennis@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-idUSKCN0S32F0201... 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

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On Aug 6, 2017, at 10:31 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine@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