Update: Here is Satya Nadella’s email to employees following the Hopper Conference interview:
“Toward the end of the interview, Maria asked me what advice I would offer women who are not comfortable asking for pay raises. I answered that question completely wrong. Without a doubt I wholeheartedly support programs at Microsoft and in the industry that bring more women into technology and close the pay gap. I believe men and women should get equal pay for equal work. And when it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it’s deserved, Maria’s advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask.
“I said I was looking forward to the Grace Hopper Conference to learn, and I certainly learned a valuable lesson.”
Original post below:
UNBELIEVABLE. Except that it’s not unbelievable. It’s classic.
The 2014 Larry Summers Award for failure to grasp the reality of the world that we aging males have created goes to …
Read more here … and everywhere. (Excellent Crosscut article here.)
Nancy Hopkins’s MIT report is required reading. Every generation of women believes that previous generations have faced obstacles, but her generation has a level playing field. Every generation of women is wrong about the latter clause.
The #1 thing tech companies can do to improve the diversity of the field is to create a welcoming and supportive environment within the company for female engineers. All of the outreach programs in the world for K-12 and college students, all of the advertising campaigns, all of the articles in the press, all of these together will not make nearly as big a difference as a visibly supportive corporate culture would make.
Excellent New York Times piece by Claire Cain Miller here.