Positive discrimination in technology: against
Article originally published in March 2018
The implementation of quotas to counter the under-representation of minorities in the tech industry is far from unanimous. Many don’t think it’s a lever for their advancement. Worse, quotas could make the situation even more difficult. After looking at the arguments in favor of affirmative action, I’ll now turn to the arguments against it.
Why should people be privileged just because they’re a “person of diversity”? Why should we hire someone less qualified just because she’s a woman, for example? How can someone continue to work if they know they’ve found a job because of their gender? Here are just a few examples of the phrases I hear when discussing positive discrimination. On the one hand, we think it’s profoundly unfair, and on the other, we think that people aren’t being employed for their real abilities.
First of all, the information technology (IT) market is far too competitive for a company to afford to hire an incompetent employee. If you’ve been chosen for a job, it’s because you’re good at it. Don’t think that it’s JUST to fill a quota, but rather that it would be to fill a quota AND have a good employee.
Melissa Guzy is the founder of Arbor Ventures, one of Asia’s largest financial technology venture capital funds. She doesn’t like quotas, even though she believes in gender equality and diversity. “If you’re derailed by a guy who acts like he’s in high school for three minutes, you’ll never survive in a startup. You’re going to face sexism in this industry!” she says. Instead, Guzy believes the solution lies in encouraging young girls to pursue careers in science, technology, computing and math, as a natural balance will then fall into place and women will get jobs in tech.
In my previous post, I mentioned the introduction of quotas in France. Another country that has put a lot of faith in this lever is Norway, but it hasn’t yielded the expected results. In 2003, Norway introduced quotas requiring 40% of board members to be women. This became mandatory for all companies in 2006. The share prices of the 500 companies targeted fell by 3.5%. Andrea Mrozek, Director of Programs at the ardus think-tank Family Cardus, explains that this is not because women don’t know how to run a business well, but because, due to the pressure of quotas, young, and therefore less experienced, women have been promoted too quickly and without guidance. Conclusion: you can’t push someone into a void and expect them to hang on to the branches by themselves!
As several technology experts have pointed out, quotas could lead to long-term resentment and cause minorities to put themselves in a situation for which they are not ready, thus setting them up for failure.
Vidya Narayanan, founder of her own startup, believes that some people’s obsession with diversity will lead to women’s downfall, and that we need to stop. She calls it a vicious circle. “We’re upset about the state of diversity in tech,” she writes. We decide to hire more women. After a few unsuccessful attempts, we begin to compromise and hire women simply because we have to. These women don’t work as well as we want them to. This reinforces the idea that women aren’t good at technology. Feminists are shocked. Diversity advocates make a pact to hire more women. The circle begins again.”
While these kinds of arguments may sound anti-feminist, Jacqui Ferguson, HPE’s CEO, explains that “the worst thing you can do is put a woman in a position where she fails, where she doesn’t have that support around her and and where she lacks confidence.”
On The Next Women blog, Eventbrite’s Director of Expansion Strategy, Elsita Sanya mentions that when you’re an employee at a company that uses quotas, the real reason you were hired is always in the back of your head. “To be honest, I’m not comfortable with having quotas,” she says. It would raise the question of whether I’ve been promoted because I’m capable or whether the real reason is that I’m a woman. In such a scenario, I’d have to prove my skills twice: first, to get the promotion, and then a second time to show that I deserved the promotion.”
I strongly believe in the need for quotas to reverse the current trend. The above examples prove that when they are introduced in a hurry and without a deep-seated desire to change the dynamics within the company, then they are doomed to failure.
- How to build an inclusive company for deaf and hard-of-hearing employees - 27 January 2021
- Positive discrimination in technology: against - 20 July 2020
- For affirmative action in technology - 30 June 2020