To address a problem, go where the problem is. Seminal feminist icon Gloria Steinem knows this, and she also knows where her expertise — what Silicon Valley likes to call “core competency” — lies. Generously, Steinem recently answered questions on the great Q&A site Quora, which features answers about everything under the sun. (And beyond it — astrononomy gets plenty of action.) If there is a typical Quora user it’s a male interested in tech and business, so it’s a very good place for the prolific Quora writer named Jonathan Brill to ask Steinem what tech companies should do to promote diversity. So he did.
Steinem said it’d be helpful to remember how important women have been in tech’s history, mentioning a critical role in the development of the router, for one. And powerful tech companies should push for equal opportunity in education, Steinem suggests, presumably STEM-based. But broadly Steinem replied that “[Tech companies] probably could think about the culture of the company itself and whether the style invites employees to participate equally. Most of all, they could ask women who are already in tech, and not me.” Going where the problem is, of course. As Steinem has always done.
