AppleInsider Staff
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently offered a few words of wisdom to high school senior Rebecca Kahn as part of a National Center for Women & Information Technology outreach program dubbed "Innovator to Innovator," which grants NCWIT Aspirations in Computing (AiC) Community members time with Apple executives.
The inaugural installment of "Innovator to Innovator," Cook's short interview came about as an assignment from Kahn's computer class teacher at Porter-Gaud school in Charleston, S.C. Kahn's task was to reach out to a person of interest in the technology industry, which she did via email.
Cook responded and conducted a brief interview by phone.
Kahn covered a few topics in her short time with Cook, picking the executive's brain on matters like women in tech, learning to code at an early age and human rights issues.
Cook reiterated past sentiment, saying children should learn to code as early as lower school. Apple itself has led efforts to insert coding into public school curriculums, and markets teaching tools like Swift Playgrounds. The company also conducts "Hour of Code" workshops for youth at its retail stores.
Cook is an advocate for more women in leadership roles, Kahn says. Apple, along with other Silicon Valley tech firms, have come under fire for a distinct lack of women executives. Though the company highlights progress in corporate diversity showcases, Apple's ranks include very few female executives.
Currently, Apple's top ranks include a handful of women, including environment VP Lisa Jackson, retail chief Angela Ahrendts and VP for Inclusion and Diversity Denise Young Smith.
Cook went on to urge Kahn to find and follow her "North Star," or higher purpose, an analogy he often cites when speaking with students or the media.
Kahn's interview ended with a query about Cook's role models. Being an NCWIT project, the Apple chief rattled off names of prominent women including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, four-star Air Force general Lori Robinson and Rosa Parks.
Additional interviews and essays featuring Apple executives are expected for release in the near future as part of the 2018 AiC Award festivities.
Christine McKee
Thomas Sibilly
Marko Zivkovic
20 Comments
First let's talk about selecting the best and the brightest.
Then let's talk about diversity.
All horses are horses and should be treated with respect. But, some breeds run faster than others while other breeds pull harder than others.
I hope that Apple continues to select the "A" players based on the demands of the job... Period.
Nobody would suggest that the Patriots should put a woman in as quarterback simply to meet a diversity requirement. (If she could throw further, faster and more accurately than Brady then fine. But...)
.... So why would they suggest that Apple do that?
The current story seems to assume that there is no difference between male and female -- and the fact that women are under represented in tech is strictly due to bias and sexism. But, my own experience in a highly successful tech company was that they sought out only the "A" players -- regardless of race, ethnicity or gender. In other words, the only bias was based on ability. As a result I worked with some excellent females who I greatly admired. But, mostly it was white guys because their skills and abilities were best suited to the majority of the jobs...
I think other areas (such as lawyers or teachers) have broader requirements than the mostly narrow scope of technology. But, tech demands a particularly unique type of abilities -- often those with Asperger's fit best -- and Asperger's, for example, carries a 4 to 1 ratio of guys over girls.
While diversity might be a noble goal, like so many progressive agendas, it has turned into a simple numbers game. If your “group” is 15% of the population then, by the current definition of diversity, your “group” should have 15% of the jobs, 15% of politicians, 15% of criminal arrests, 15% of of the prison population,15% of the wealth. We saw this in action with Affirmative Action, social integration, busing, etc. In my neck of the woods state construction contracts must include minority and female owned businesses. Okay, fair enough I guess, but how did this work out in the real world? One well established construction company simply made the owner’s wife the President and CEO of the company. Other minority and female companies were just fronts.
My own daughter was affected by diversity hiring standards. She applied for a job based on an ad she saw in the newspaper. She had two telephone interviews before it dawned on the interviewer that she was caucasian. The ad never said a word about ethnic preferences (I suppose that would be illegal, equal opportunity employer and all that) but my daughter was told quite frankly that the job was reserved for a woman of color. End of interview and job prospect.