Apple CEO: 'No good excuses' for tech firm's not employing more women
Tech firms that blame a lack of women taking computer science are ‘copping out’, Tim Cook tells the BBC
Apple's CEO Tim Cook ha said there are "no good excuses" for a lack of women in the tech sector.
He told the BBC that he sees it as a "cop out" when firms blame their lack of progress on a shortage of women with computer science qualifications.
Cook said there are "no good excuses" that prevent the tech sector from employing more women.
Thirty-five per cent of Apple's staff in the US are female, according to its own diversity figures for 2021.
"Businesses can't cop out and say, 'there's not enough women taking computer science - therefore I can't hire enough'," he said.
He said that the usefulness of technology for society as a whole will depend on tech's ability to get more "diverse views at the table".
"I think the the essence of technology and its effect on humanity depends upon women being at the table," Mr Cook says.
"Technology's a great thing that will accomplish many things, but unless you have diverse views at the table that are working on it, you don't wind up with great solutions."
The Apple CEO thinks that coding courses should become a compulsory part of education in schools so everyone is equipped with a "working knowledge" of how coding works and how apps are made.
"We have to fundamentally change the number of people that are taking computer science and programming."
CRN research into gender diversity among top UK resellers has shown the channel has modestly narrowed its own gender imbalance.
Among the 46 UK IT solutions providers that report the relevant pay gap data, the mean pay gap has shrunk by almost two per cent - from 24.4 to 22.2 - since 2018.
Meanwhile, women make up on average just 29 per cent of the workforce of UK IT solution providers. This has, however, increased since pay gap reporting began in 2018. The average percentage of female staff working in the industry rose from 27.6 to 29.1 per cent during that four-year period.