The gross sexism of the tech industry

No doubt we shall hear much of this report. How women, LGBT and other minorities have a terribly hard time in the tech industry:

Sexual harassment, bullying and racist stereotyping are common in the technology industry, creating a culture that drives underrepresented employees out of their jobs, new research has found.

One in 10 women in tech experience unwanted sexual attention, and nearly one in four people of color face stereotyping, according to the Kapor Center for Social Impact and Harris Poll, which surveyed more than 2,000 people who left tech jobs in the last three years.

The solution is therefore:

The report suggested that strong diversity and inclusion initiatives, such as explicit diversity goals, unconscious bias trainings, employee resource groups and bonuses for referrals of diverse candidates, can significantly improve retention.

We didn't expect anything else from a project being run by Ellen Pao to be honest.

We don't really believe one conclusion:

Workplace culture drives turnover, significantly affecting the retention of underrepresented groups, and costing the industry more than $16 billion each year.

For we are aware of Gary Becker's analysis in this area. In a market system such costs will be competed away. Those excellent, for of course they are all indeed excellent, employees discriminated against are a profit opportunity for someone who does not so discriminate. Thus someone should be making a fortune out of the discriminatory behaviour. As has happened in the past, Dame Steve Shirley. The absence of the reaction tells us that there is something wrong with the initial diagnosis. 

Another, and not wholly consistent we agree, way of looking at the point is why is anyone surprised? We've all been making jokes about the social inadequacy of the nerds for centuries. We're now in a technological time when nerdity is a highly valued attribute. Why is anyone surprised that when we collect all of the uber-nerds from around the world we end up with organisations which lack a certain politesse?