Tim Cook Champions Women In The Workforce, Preaches Diversity, 'The Future' Of Apple
Apple boss Tim Cook made a surprise appearance at an orientation session for winners of his company's WWDC Scholarship Program. While at the event, he took selfies with students and talked about a number of subjects, including one that's been a point of focus several major technology companies during the past year -- diversity.
When asked why Apple needed to put more effort in ensuring its workforce is a diverse one, Cook got straight to the point.
"It's the future of our company," Cook said. "I view these people that I talk to today as the future generations of the company, and they will either be a part of it directly or a part of the ecosystem. And either way -- when I think of Apple, I think of the whole community, not just the people that have the Apple badge."
Like several influential tech firms, a diversity report last year revealed that Apple's workforce is predominately male (70 percent) and white (55 percent). Apple is far from alone in this regard -- a separate diversity report last year revealed that Microsoft's workforce is 71 percent male and over 60 percent white, prompting the company to say that "much work remains" towards building a truly diverse workforce.
It's a widespread issue among some of the biggest tech companies. Both Twitter and Facebook said there's "a lot more work to do" after releasing their own diversity reports, and the same goes for Yahoo, which to its credit is led by a female CEO and is overall closer to the equality line than the others.
The common defense to the demographic split, whether it be in terms of race or sex, is that it's simply the way it shakes out when looking at the qualified candidates. Cook isn't willing to accept that excuse.
"I think it's our fault -- 'our' meaning the whole tech community," Cook said. "I think in general we haven't done enough to reach out and show young women that it's cool to do [tech] and how much fun it can be."
When asked why Apple needed to put more effort in ensuring its workforce is a diverse one, Cook got straight to the point.
"It's the future of our company," Cook said. "I view these people that I talk to today as the future generations of the company, and they will either be a part of it directly or a part of the ecosystem. And either way -- when I think of Apple, I think of the whole community, not just the people that have the Apple badge."
Like several influential tech firms, a diversity report last year revealed that Apple's workforce is predominately male (70 percent) and white (55 percent). Apple is far from alone in this regard -- a separate diversity report last year revealed that Microsoft's workforce is 71 percent male and over 60 percent white, prompting the company to say that "much work remains" towards building a truly diverse workforce.
It's a widespread issue among some of the biggest tech companies. Both Twitter and Facebook said there's "a lot more work to do" after releasing their own diversity reports, and the same goes for Yahoo, which to its credit is led by a female CEO and is overall closer to the equality line than the others.
The common defense to the demographic split, whether it be in terms of race or sex, is that it's simply the way it shakes out when looking at the qualified candidates. Cook isn't willing to accept that excuse.
"I think it's our fault -- 'our' meaning the whole tech community," Cook said. "I think in general we haven't done enough to reach out and show young women that it's cool to do [tech] and how much fun it can be."
