Dive Brief:

• Even as the tech industry strives to become more equitable, a quarter of women said they feel their voices are sometimes subdued, always subdued or that they have no voice at work meetings, according to a new report by Hugo, a San Francisco-based productivity software company. Ten percent of the men surveyed reported their voices being sometimes subdued, the report found.
• Overall, slightly more than a quarter of the respondents said they've observed gender differences in their workplace. Fifty-seven percent more women and non-binary individuals than men agreed with this statement, the report said.
• The report encouraged employers to foster more equitable meetings by asking employees in meetings to avoid interrupting their colleagues, actively listen to each speaker, encourage each other to share ideas both good and back and request clarification when confused.

Dive Insight:

The tech industry has a reputation for struggling with diversity and inclusion (D&I), and considering the outcomes of numerous studies, including this one, it appears this sector's struggle continues. A 2018 Atlassian study suggested that that D&I efforts in the industry had stalled because of "diversity fatigue" — tech workers were tired of talking about D&I after seeing little progress. The study also found that tech organizations in Silicon Valley were less likely to have formal D&I programs in 2018 than they had in 2017.

The industry has faced criticism for this apparent lack of diversity and progress: The Congressional Black Caucus openly criticized the tech industry for not adding more people of color and women to its ranks, pushing leaders to speed up hiring efforts. The caucus said the industry was overlooking the contributions of a large talent pool and shutting them out of the opportunity to earn the high standard of living associated with tech jobs.

Some companies claim to be making strides in this area. Intel Corp. announced in 2018 that it had met its diversity goal and that its workforce had reached full representation. The Wall Street Journal called out the company on its claim, however, reporting that its definition of "full representation" neither reflected the overall U.S. population nor the workforce at large.