Google has changed the tech sphere in so many ways. But like many tech companies, it has suffered criticism for employing a staff that lacks diversity.
Google is trying to change that by investing more than $150 million into a new initiative to bring more women and people of color to the tech industry. "In a blog post this week, VP of People Operations Nancy Lee laid out the company's strategy for 2015. It follows earlier public efforts by Google to increase diversity, including sending Google engineers to historically black universities and and working with Disney to improve depictions of girls in computer science. In 2014, the company put $114 million toward diversity programs," reports Fox 31 Denver.
This new program will also expand the number of colleges that Google typically recruits from in order to get more variety into the company. Google's 2014 diversity report revealed that "only 17% of its tech workers are female, 1% of its tech workforce is black and 2% are Hispanic."
This program seems to be in response to tech culture cliches. Many people believe that Silicon Valley is, for the most part, a "white boy's game." And for the most part, it's true, according to Business Insider. Many writers have written long treatises on how tech culture is full of misogyny and "bro culture." However, new initiatives like this help break down these trends and help create new venues for women and people of color to get involved in tech.
Lee said that she will release Google's 2015 diversity report soon.
