XRDS • SUMMER 2014 • VOL. 20 • NO. 4 of truth, but they also leave room for bucketfuls of hidden biases.

Our sister organization, the Level Playing Field Institute, recently studied the impact of hidden bias in tech workplaces—both large companies and startups. What was striking was the degree to which engineers and managers in the same companies have day-to-day experiences that differ dramatically. Even though they’re often on the same team or in the same department, some feel respected and encouraged, while others feel excluded and ignored. These views aren’t randomly distributed across the group of engineers and managers, they strongly correlate to race and gender.

A particularly striking finding was
while 60 percent of men in startups
believe diverse teams are better at in-
novation and problem solving, only 41
percent would be in favor of a company-
wide hiring practice to increase diver-
sity. Really? If 60 percent believed, for
example, knowing how to code made
for better hires, would only 41 percent
be in favor of hiring people who knew
how to code?

In that same study, women and underrepresented people of color were far more likely to believe in the importance of diverse representation on teams and to support company hiring practices to achieve diversity than their white, male counterparts. Underrepresented people of color were nearly twice as likely as whites to be in favor of a company-wide practice to increase diversity (80 percent compared with 46 percent). Eighty-two percent of men in startups believed their companies spent the “right amount of time” addressing diversity.

Until our experiences of our shared workplaces converge, we will continue to confuse “style and fit” with merit. This undermines fundamental fairness and robs individuals, companies, and society of the benefit of everyone’s talents.

Imagine a company that innovated
in order to figure out how to achieve
bias-free hiring, or to help employees
balance their careers, children, and oth-
er life pursuits. As long as we have one
and only one model of success (Marissa
Mayer spoke of working 20 hours a day
at Google and sleeping under her desk)
and one view of what talent looks like (ei-
ther a graduate or a dropout of a top-tier
university), we’ll all lose out. Economies
cannot remain—or become—competi-
tive without finding all available talent,
nurturing it, and providing opportuni-
ties for budding entrepreneurs, inves-
tors, and employees from every corner.

HO W BIAS UNFOLDS

In the United States, there is a significant underrepresentation of African-American and Latino employees generally, and female engineers specifically within startups. This is a complex phenomenon, but mostly due to three factors:

1. Lack of social network or college pedigree for diverse applicants.

2. Risk profile and compensation.

3. The bias of “culture fit” related to race, class, and/or gender.

 

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