Pat Gelsinger

Gelsinger gives equality a push start

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VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger. (Image: VMware)

28 October 2014

Billy MacInnesIn his introductory remarks at the recent VMworld 2014 event in Barcelona, corporate senior vice president Maurizio Carli drew attention to the VMwomen Group. VMwomen was launched by VMware this year as an enteprirse-wide initiative to increase the representation of women. The vendor set up the group on the back of research which shows that “greater diversity results in increased innovation, which in turn leads to better business outcomes”.

The group is led, a little incongruously, by VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger, although it could be argued that putting the top man in charge of the initiative demonstrates to everyone else in the company just how seriously it’s being taken. The less charitable view would be that putting Gelsinger in charge shows all too clearly the need for more women executives at VMware.

As one of my fellow journos pointed out to me when we were leaving the arena following the first day keynote, all the speakers on the stage had been men. If you wanted evidence of the paucity of women in executive positions at IT companies, it was there for the (mostly male) audience to see. The fact that we were able to highlight the few exceptions off the top of our heads  – HP, IBM and Yahoo – could be construed as a damning indictment of the IT industry. To be fair, however, most industries have an equally bad record.

A couple of weeks after VMworld 2014, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published its annual gender gap survey which measures the gap between men and women in health, education, the economy and politics in 142 countries. Ireland has dropped from sixth place to eighth and the UK has fallen eight spaces from 18th to 26th. By contrast, the US improved, rising three places but was still only in 20th place overall. Given that most technology companies are US-based, it’s a source of disappointment that the country barely scrapes into the top 20.

The WEF says the world has seen only a small improvement in equality for women in the workplace since it first published the survey in 2006 with the gender gap closing by only 4% from 56% to 60%. The WEF calculates that “based on this trajectory, with all else remaining equal, it will take 81 years for the world to close this gap completely”. While things are going well in terms of health and survival (96%) and educational attainment is also well on the way to parity (94%), the WEF reports that “the gender gap for economic participation and opportunity lags stubbornly behind”. Things are even worse in the political sphere.

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For those of us with daughters, the depressing prospect is that they are unlikely to enjoy gender equality in their working lifetime unless something happens to speed up the process. The results of the report underline how important initiatives like VMwomen are in helping to increase women’s participation in the IT industry and to help redress the wider gender gap. Anything that can counter the image of the IT industry as a male bastion is to be welcomed. You only have to look at the current controversy over Gamergate to see the symptoms of the gender problem in IT.

Gender inequality is not just an IT industry problem but given that our industry is so keen to emphasise the importance of its role in the modern world (and in the future), it would surely be fitting if IT was seen to take a lead in helping to erase the gender gap. If we really are working in an ever-changing, agile, fast-moving, potentially revolutionary industry, it would be heartening to see that ethos reflected in how fast gender balance is achieved within IT companies and their boardrooms.

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