硅谷須增強員工多元化 Make tech’s disrupters fix their own diversity problem

Silicon Valley is in love with “disruption” — ideas and practices that subvert the established order. So here’s one: how about telling rich white men it is up to them to make tech companies more diverse?

硅谷迷上了“破壞”——顛覆現有秩序的創意和實踐層出不窮。那麼，現在就有一個創意：告訴有錢的白人男性，讓科技公司更具多樣性是他們的責任。這個主意如何？

To some the idea will sound reminiscent of a headline in satirical publication The Onion: “Man Finally Put In Charge of Struggling Feminist Movement”. But there is a serious point. In sectors where women, ethnic minorities and other groups are already under-represented, is it fair to impose on them the extra burden of fighting for equality? For women with young children, there is a double bind: the caring responsibilities that make it hard to juggle work and family make it harder to find time to appear on panels about women in tech.

對一些人來說，這種想法聽起來像諷刺小報《洋蔥》(The Onion)會使用的標題：“男人最終接管了陷入困境的女權運動”。但這種想法很有意義。在女性、少數族羣及其他團體處於弱勢的領域，在他們身上強加爲平等而鬥爭的額外負擔，這樣公平嗎？對於要撫養幼兒的女性來說，她們處在雙重枷鎖之中：照顧子女的責任讓她們很難兼顧工作和家庭，更難有時間出現在科技公司關於女性的小組討論中。

There are many reasons why the tech world does not reflect the wider population, from homophily — where those in power appoint and promote people with similar backgrounds — to the prevalence of a peculiar type of male-dominated geek culture or the fact that many companies lionise long hours. (Witness the Soylent craze, where twentysomethings at start-ups boast of drinking vitamin shakes to save time on meals.)

導致科技領域不能反映更廣泛人口結構特徵的原因有很多，從同質性（掌權者任命和提拔與自己背景相似的人）到男性主導的極客(geek)文化的流行，以及許多公司奉行長時間加班的文化（神奇飲料Soylent的流行就是一個明證，初創企業中20多歲的員工們吹噓喝這種維生素飲料可以節省下吃飯的時間。）

It is to big tech companies’ credit that many have taken steps to address the lack of diversity. Google provides workshops to combat unconscious bias in hiring, and has created employee networks (including “Gayglers” and “Greyglers”) to link members of under-represented groups. Importantly, like Apple, Facebook and others, it also publishes data on its workforce. This means even diversity sceptics can see the scale of the inequality: at Twitter , only 10 per cent of tech jobs were held by women in 2014; 2 per cent of Google’s US workforce were black and 3 per cent were Hispanic. (In the US workforce as a whole, those figures are 12 and 14 per cent. Women make up more than half of the general population.)

許多大型科技公司已經在採取措施解決多樣性不足的問題，這值得稱讚。谷歌(Google)通過研討會應對招聘中無意識的偏見，併爲弱勢羣體建立員工網絡——包括同性戀員工(Gayglers)和大齡員工(Greyglers)。更重要的是，同蘋果(Apple)、Facebook及其他公司一樣，谷歌還發布員工多樣性數據。這意味着，即使是對多樣性持懷疑態度的人也可以看出不平等的程度：在Twitter，2014年只有10%的技術職位由女性從事；谷歌在美國的僱員中2%是黑人，3%是拉美裔。（在美國全體勞動人口中，黑人和拉美裔的比例分別爲12%和14%。女性佔總人口的一半以上。)

Last month junewas the second time Google published its diversity data, and the updated figures show that while progress is happening, it is horribly slow. That is where powerful white men come in. They can make the case for diversity and never be accused of special pleading; they are obviously not acting out of self-interest. And, because they have reached the top, they have the power to set culture through the ranks.

上月，谷歌第二次發佈了其員工多樣性數據，新數據顯示，雖然該公司在多樣性方面正在取得進步，但這種進步是極其緩慢的。這正是掌握着權力的白人男性可以發揮作用的地方。他們可以闡明推動多樣性的理由，而絕不會被指責爲詭辯——他們這樣做顯然並非出於自身利益。而且，因爲身處公司最高職位，他們有權力建立貫穿所有層級的企業文化。

Helena Morrissey — the investment fund manager (and mother of nine) who heads the 30 Per Cent Club, an initiative to get more women on boards — is adamant that men need to muck in. This year she recalled the revelation she had at a City of London women’s lunch on the subject: “I realised we were all stuck. And then I realised that we needed men, or we needed people in power, to change it.” Another important idea occurred when her company, Newton, went through a difficult patch soon after she took over. The company offered all staff a move to a four-day week to cut its wage bill. A surprising number of men accepted. “It broke the stigma,” she said.

投資基金經理海倫娜•莫里西(Helena Morrissey)育有九個孩子，她是致力於讓更多女性進入董事會的“百分之三十俱樂部”(30 Per Cent Club)的負責人。她堅信，男人也應該出一份力。今年，她回憶起曾經在倫敦金融城女性午餐話題會上得到的啓示：“我意識到，我們都沒主意了。然後我意識到，我們需要男人或者說掌握權力的人來改變局面。”當牛頓投資管理公司(Newton)在她接管不久後遭遇困難時，她又有一個新的想法。該公司向所有員工提出一項舉措，一週可以工作4天，以削減工資開支。接受該提議的男性人數之多令人意外。“這洗掉了污名，”她說。

The book often cited by those seeking to encourage women to succeed in business is Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer. She suggests they ensure their domestic partner is “a real partner”, one who does a fair share of housework and childcare. Perhaps what is needed now is for a man of comparable stature to make the mirror-image case: to tell his fellow men that spending time with their family will be as rewarding as a late-night conference call with Beijing, or to announce he is working part-time while his children are small. The media can help by routinely quizzing male executives about whether it is possible for them to “have it all”.

那些鼓勵女性努力去取得事業成功的人，經常引用Facebook首席運營官謝里爾•桑德伯格(Sheryl Sandberg)所著的《向前一步》(Lean In)一書。桑德伯格建議，女性要確保自己的丈夫是“一個真正的夥伴”，能夠公平地分擔做家務和照顧孩子的責任。也許，現在所需要的是讓一個有相當地位的男人現身說法：告訴他的男性同胞，花時間陪伴家人，意義堪比與北京方面進行一次深夜電話會議，或講述當孩子還小時，他做的是兼職工作。媒體也可以起到作用，經常在男性高管中間調查一下，他們能否做到“同時兼顧家庭和工作”。