Social Inequality in High Tech: How Gender, Race, and Ethnicity Structure the World's Most Powerful Industry

Abstract

The high-tech industry is the world's most powerful and profitable industry, and it is almost entirely dominated by white, Asian American, and Asian men. This article reviews research on social inequality in the high-tech industry, focusing on gender and race/ethnicity. It begins with a discussion of alternative ways of defining the sector and an overview of its history and employment demographics. Next is an analysis of gendered and racialized pathways into high-paying jobs in the industry, followed by a review of research on workplace organization that emphasizes how sexism and racism are embedded inside the firm and beyond it, through the design of high-tech products and services. Finally, gender and racial disparities in attrition rates are discussed. The conclusion calls for future research on social inequality and the funding structure of the industry, age discrimination inside tech, effective diversity policies, and labor movement activism throughout the high-tech industry.

Hiring Discrimination Under Pressures to Diversify: Gender, Race, and Diversity Commodification across Job Transitions in Software Engineering

“…If this were the case, we would expect that individuals from the most stigmatized groups receive the highest returns to signals of exceptionalism (Monk et al 2021). Instead, we find that the most stigmatized groups in this context-Black women and Black men (see also Neely et al 2023; Twine 2022)-did not benefit most in the senior-to-senior and junior-tosenior transitions. Exceptionalism alone also does not fully explain the qualitative findings, where there was relatively little talk of the "exceptional" qualities of White women, Black men, or Black women senior software engineers, and even less evidence that engineers applying upward in their careers were viewed as exceptional for simply applying.…”

“…occupation compared to White men (Han and Tomaskovic-Devey 2022;Neely, Sheehan, and Williams 2023;Simard et al 2008;Thomas et al 2021). Because many workers attempt to advance their careers in the external labor market (Kalleberg and Mouw 2018), a key "demand-side" explanation for this inequality (Rivera 2020) is employer discrimination in hiring decisions against workers seeking job mobility.…”

“…We address these questions with two studies in the context of software engineering, an occupation that remains highly dominated by White men and faces intense pressures to diversify (Han and Tomaskovic-Devey 2022;Neely et al 2023;Twine 2022). We first conduct a clear empirical test of predictions from social psychological bias theories by using a large-scale correspondence audit study (N = 11,190) to assess patterns of discrimination in employers' hiring screening decisions toward Black men, Black women, and White women seeking job transitions, compared to White men.…”

“…White, male-dominated professions in the United States—including those in science and technology sectors—are marked with gender and racial inequality in career advancement, such that women and minoritized racial groups experience relatively slower progression to subsequent job levels in the organizational hierarchy, greater risk of mid-career stagnation, and higher attrition from the occupation compared to White men (Han and Tomaskovic-Devey 2022; Neely, Sheehan, and Williams 2023; Simard et al 2008; Thomas et al 2021). Because many workers attempt to advance their careers in the external labor market (Kalleberg and Mouw 2018), a key “demand-side” explanation for this inequality (Rivera 2020) is employer discrimination in hiring decisions against workers seeking job mobility.…”

Unionizing High Tech: Opportunities and Obstacles

“…Many young workers who are drawn to these firms hope to grind their way towards what they describe as a “FIRE” exit (financial independence, retire early), a career trajectory that mirrors their employers’ dream of lucrative hypergrowth. In this frame, tech workers’ experience of exploitation (the long hours at work) is redefined as self-sacrifice for eventual rewards—and they have the human and social capital to fall back on if the wager doesn’t pay off (Neely, Sheehan, and Williams 2023).…”