The Alarming Downsides to Tech Industry Diversity Reports:

The tech industry doesn’t just have a diversity problem. It has a results problem. Major tech companies pour millions of dollars into recruiting, but there remain significant, quantifiable discrepancies—in workforce diversity, in gender equity among people of color, and in representation among top leadership. Even the industry’s annual diversity reports, a crucial step towards transparency, can hide vital information and nuance.

Tech companies have been disclosing their diversity numbers semi-annually since 2014. In November, Microsoft announced that it would tie executive bonuses to diversity goals after the number of women at the company decreased from 26.8 percent to 25.8 percent. Last year, Google donated $150 million to diversity efforts, and Apple similarly pledged $50 million. But after talking a big game about improving gender and ethnic diversity in their ranks, demonstrated progress has been very slow and, at times, misleading.