On a larger scale, our diversity efforts are not improving the most important social issues in the industry. Tech’s racism will not be solved just through throwing in a few more people of color, and it certainly will not end just because white women are better represented. Adding more minorities won’t address our abusive manufacturing processes in other countries, gentrification in tech-heavy cities, or income disparity in the United States. The current feminist landscape puts so much focus on getting women into positions of power, but those positions of power still serve to marginalize and harm others. We share article after article about how to get women promoted into leadership positions, but we don’t ask why women should want to lead an unethical corporation. We idolize unicorn startups making life easier for the millennial with disposable income, but we rarely ask where the startups focused on empowering marginalized people are. This isn’t the industry we should want to inherit. More privileged women can join the elite inner circle of tech, but that can hardly be considered a win when so many others are still disadvantaged.
“The Pie is Rotten: Re-Evaluating Tech Feminism in 2016″ by Amy Nguyen on Model View Culture (December 14, 2015)
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