Tag: Women

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Government and Policy McNair Center Women

The Right to Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship and human rights are not frequently mentioned in the same conversation in the United States. However, in international policy, human rights and entrepreneurship are linked by many common policy goals, including enforcing the rule of law, improving infrastructure and fighting corruption. Rights necessary to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors–like the right to participate in the economy, the rights to education and information and access to credit–are considered crucial for the world’s poor. By pursuing these goals, human rights activists and entrepreneurship advocates can work together for the good of all.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/UN_Geneva_Human_Rights_and_Alliance_of_Civilizations_Room.jpg The UN Human Rights Council meets here.
The UN Human Rights Council meets in Alliance of Civilizations room in Geneva.

Human Rights

Human rights are defined by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as “rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language or any other status.” Since the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, criteria has changed. Nonetheless, human rights continue to be a top priority in international law. According to the Department of State, the U.S. places an emphasis on human rights while pursuing foreign policy goals:  “A central goal of U.S. foreign policy has been the promotion of respect for human rights, as embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

A Mutually Beneficial Relationship

Human rights and entrepreneurship have the ability to reinforce one another. Hrishikesh D. Vinod of Fordham University examined the policy and advocacy goals of entrepreneurship and human rights, looking for areas for collaboration. He identified five key areas where the goals of entrepreneurs and rights advocates align: promotion of fair competition, creating infrastructure, protecting migration rights, exposing government corruption and preservation of the rule of law. Vinod describes entrepreneurship and human rights as natural allies. He notes that “their cooperation is likely to become a potent force for a worldwide progressive change.”

A study done by the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru helps to demonstrate Vinod’s argument in action. In this study, implementation of a human rights awareness and training campaign in Central Asia by a nongovernmental group increased new micro-businesses by five percent. The researchers who conducted this study urged that “the time is now ripe for acceptance of human rights approach to development of entrepreneurship as the human rights and entrepreneurship share a preoccupation not only with necessary outcomes for improving the lives of the people but also with better processes.”

The Right to Entrepreneurship

The United Nations Development Programme asserts that the rights that allow someone to start a business or become self-employed are “essential for the livelihoods of the poor.” The UNDP stresses that micro-entrepreneurship and self-employment are often the only option for the poor to generate money. Protection of these rights can impact many lives.

The right to entrepreneurship, along with other economic rights, can lead to the promotion of other social and political rights. A study commissioned by the World Bank explains the nature of the relationship: “The importance of participation in economic decision-making demonstrates how civil and political rights and socio-economic rights are mutually supportive, and why human rights recognize them to be interrelated, indivisible and interdependent.” For example, micro-credit and micro-entrepreneurship can increase economic, social and political empowerment of the poor, especially poor women. The Benazir Income Support Program offers small loans to women in Pakistan to pay for expenses and pursue entrepreneurship opportunities. However, this program did more than just bolster these women’s rights to entrepreneurship; the program also resulted in previously “unregistered” women becoming “registered,” giving them access to other social and political rights.

A 2010 study on women in rural Bangladesh also noticed a connection between entrepreneurship and other rights. Bangladeshi women often don’t have the opportunity to become formally involved in the economy. In this study, small bank loans gave them capital to start micro-businesses and increase their economic empowerment. With the ability to participate in trade, women can use their newfound security to pursue other rights as well.

In 2008, the Harvard Human Rights Journal pushed for the promotion of entrepreneurial rights of the poor. In their recommendation for the U.S. Human Rights agenda going forward, they suggested that the U.S. increase micro-entrepreneurship funding for other countries “because we know it works.” They added that it is “up to us to focus our resources on building a new generation of small entrepreneurs in the developing world.”

How Can This Impact Policy Decisions?

Knowing that entrepreneurship and human rights have the power to reinforce one another, we can create policy that accelerates both. When we protect human rights, individuals can feel empowered and safe to explore entrepreneurial endeavors. The trend works in the opposite direction as well; possessing the right to entrepreneurship can empower individuals to pursue the protection of their other rights. Economic power can allow vulnerable individuals to fight more effectively for the promotion of their rights.

This relationship demonstrates an important point for advocates of any cause: it is important think about collaboration whenever possible. There is always potential to find compromises that benefit all, and we have more in common than we expect.

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McNair Center Women

Women in Top Tech Companies

In 2014, many of the top tech companies released information on their employee diversity demographics for the first time, bringing attention to the low representation of women in top tech companies. This post looks beyond these numbers. How are tech companies responding to this gender imbalance?

The top five tech companies by market cap are, in order: Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook. The gender balance of each company’s workforce is in the table below:

women-workforce-table
Sources are linked for Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and  Facebook. Data on national averages can be found here and here.

All of these companies are seeking to improve their gender balance and support current women employees. Resource groups, family benefits and smart hiring practices are some of the most common solutions. Even when these efforts are made, the male-dominated work environments can be far from ideal for women at these companies.

Women Employee Experiences

Resource Groups

Resource groups can serve as valuable support networks for women employees. Each of the top tech five has at least one employee resource group for women (Apple: Women@Apple; Google: Women@Google, Google Women in Engineering; Microsoft: Women@Microsoft; Facebook: Women@Facebook, Amazon: Women@Amazon, Amazon Women in Engineering, Women in Finance Initiative). All of these groups share similar goals: empowering women in their workforce and providing networking opportunities.

Many of these resource groups also participate in community outreach, engaging young girls and women and creating programs to foster their interests in technology. (See Women in STEM: Closing the Gap for more information on how community outreach can help change the culture around women in STEM in the United States.)  After recognizing that underrepresentation of women in tech is related to the lack of educational STEM exposure and encouragement for women, Facebook created Computer Science and Engineering Lean-In Circles to support women in college who are interested in CS.

Conferences

Sponsoring women’s tech conferences, like the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing or the Women in Real Life (WiRL) Conference, is also common among these resource groups. Amazon even holds its own conference: Every year, the women’s resource groups at Amazon also team up to host AmazeCon, a diversity conference that focuses on the achievements due to diverse teams at Amazon. The conference draws thousands of experts and leaders to discuss the importance of diversity in creativity and accomplishments.

Microsoft has taken an extra step by creating an innovative program for women, Women Think Next. WTN is a “worldwide community for professional women,” bringing together women from varying fields and backgrounds to network and support one another.

The program is not limited to Microsoft employees. WTN encouraged any and all professional women around the world to join. Women Think Next holds an annual networking conference and provides resources for women throughout the year. The conference also serves as a recruitment event for Microsoft to hire women with strong skills.

Employee Complaints

Everything isn’t always as it seems on paper, though. The male-dominated work environments at these companies can be isolating for female workers. In 2015, Microsoft faced a lawsuit accusing the company of gender-discriminatory policies in employee reviews. In May 2016, a former Facebook contractor published a piece on the sexism she experienced while working on a project team. During September 2016, Apple received criticism in the media for a series of leaked emails that revealed the company’s unresponsiveness to concerns of women employees. Through these emails, women employees described the company’s atmosphere as “toxic,” including workplace harassment and gender discrimination.

It is important to note that these are all anecdotal experiences. Each company responded by emphasizing that they take complaints like these seriously. The sensitive nature of the companies’ investigations of these claims prevents more information from being public.

Work-Life Balance

In American society, women often face conflict between the gender norms surrounding women’s family responsibilities and a desire to pursue a career. Maternity and family leave benefits can be an important factor in a woman’s decision to stay with a company in the long run, especially after she has started a family.

Of all of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development member countries, the United States is the only one that does not mandate paid maternity leave. According to the most recent statistics, only 12% of Americans receive this benefit.

However, within the tech top five, they seem to go far and beyond this requirement. Below is a summary of the family leave benefits for the tech top five.

maternity-leave-chart
Sources are linked for Apple here and here, Alphabet, Microsoft here, here and here, Amazon, Facebook, and National Standard

It is not surprising that these companies give generous benefits. Named the best place to work in the U.S. in 2015 by both Forbes and Glassdoor, Google is known for its employee perks. One of Google’s greatest strengths lies in its emphasis on self-study to determine workforce problems and find solutions. In 2007, Google’s People Operations (AKA Human Resources) department noticed that new mothers left Google at twice the average departure rate. In response, the company decided to lengthen paid maternity leave from 12 to 18 weeks. After this change, Google’s departure rate for new mothers dropped by 50 percent.

Controversial Benefits

In 2014, both Apple and Facebook received media attention for their announcements that they would pay to freeze U.S.-based employees’ eggs. Apple announced it as a new dimension to their support for infertility treatments. The move was met with mixed reviews by the media. NBC News praised it as a “game-changing perk,” but The Guardian denounced it as “unreasonable and illogical.” Supporters of the policy argue that it gives female employees more flexibility in their decision to have children. Critics claim that the policy sends the wrong message, implying that if female employees want to succeed at work, they need to delay motherhood.

Parental Equality

It is important to look not only at a company’s maternity leave policies, but at their parental and family leave policies as well. Studies of maternity and motherhood-related policies in other countries, like a mandated child care law in Chile and a reduced hours law in Spain, have shown that offering parental benefits only to women can lead to a decrease in salary and promotion rates of all women at a company, even those who don’t take advantage of them. One approach to combating these negative effects could be making these policies gender-neutral. This would allow for men to take advantage of these policies and reduce gender-discriminatory practices.

Hiring, Promotions and Pay

Facebook has received attention for its hiring point system. Facebook’s recruiters receive points for new hires, but based on the new recruits’ diversity, it can earn recruiters more points. White or Asian males only count for one point, whereas black, Hispanic, or female new hires count for two points. Higher point totals can lead to good performance reviews and bonuses for recruiters. This system incentivizes the creation of a more diverse workforce.

At Google, employee studies showed that women were less likely than men to submit their names for promotions. After Google brought this information to the attention of women employees, this discrepancy disappeared. Google now prides itself in the fact that they promote women and men at the same rates.

In August 2016, Apple announced plans to increase hiring of women and minorities. During the same announcement, they celebrated their official elimination of all gender pay gaps within the company. To maintain this, they have pledged to analyze and correct any gaps as they may arise in the future.

Amazon has also addressed its pay gap. Amazon boasts that women earn 99.9 percent of men’s salaries, explaining that the percentage fluctuates annually, so that it may not always reach a perfect 100 percent. However, Amazon has received criticism on its diversity reports for not including statistics on the percentage of women who make up their tech workforce. This discrepancy has led media to question whether Amazon has something to hide. Until Amazon releases more information, there is no way to know the state of female representation in their tech workforce.

What Does This Mean?

When compared to national averages, women are not as well-represented in the top tech companies. However, these companies provide benefits and services to their women and employees that are above and beyond the norm. Nonetheless, as the anecdotal experiences of the women at Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft have shown, a company can offer great benefits while still tolerating a discriminatory workplace environment.

Regardless, these companies need to develop new strategies  to address low women’s representation. Only time will tell how future policy, research, and incentives will impact women’s employment in the tech workforce.

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McNair Center Weekly Roundup

Innovation Weekly Roundup: 12/02/16

Weekly Roundup is a McNair Center series compiling and summarizing the week’s most important Entrepreneurship and Innovation news.

Here is what you need to know about innovation this week:

Closing the Gender Patenting Gap Could Unlock Innovation

Barbara Gault, Executive Director, Institute for Women’s Policy Research

A study by the Institute for Women’s Policy research has quantified the gender difference in patenting. The IWPR claims women’s underrepresentation in STEM fields is a major in the patent disparity and notes that patents granted to coed teams are cited more often than patents granted to single gender teams.

The divide is significant; under 20 percent of US patents cite a woman inventor and under 8 percent list a woman as the primary inventor. The IWPR suggests employers help women pay for filing patent applications and expand women’s professional network to close the gap. The McNair Center’s Tay Jacobe has written about has written about the gender gap in STEM.

Is Engine of Innovation in Danger of Stalling?

Christopher Mims, Technology Columnist, Wall Street Journal

The basic discoveries at the heart of the biggest tech companies are growing old fast. Inventions like the transistor and internet, while not relics, were invented between 1940 and 1980 when federal funding allowed for long-term research without immediate commercial use. At that time, the federal government spent 2 percent of GDP on research and development. That figure is now 0.6 percent.

The landscape of R&D has shifted. Now, corporate R&D spending is at 2 percent of GDP, from under 0.6% in the 1960’s. While this appears beneficial at face value, since the corporations who profit off inventions are funding them, it hides the fact that basic discoveries and incremental advancement is overlooked in favor of easily marketable technologies. Arati Prabhakar, Director of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) explains, “we need public investment in R&D because companies only worry about the next quarter.”

Venture capitalists now fund by backing startups that are then acquired for their innovations. This still places an onus on inventors to work on marketable technologies rather than truly speculative research that used to be the foray of Bell Labs and still is in the domain of IBM Research.

How China’s Government Helps and Hinders Innovation

Anil Gupta, Professor, University of Maryland Smith School of Business; Cofounder of China India Institute
Haiyan Wang, Managing Partner, China India Institute

Although India spends a tenth of what China spends on R&D, Indian research leads to significantly more international patents than Chinese R&D.  The top-10 US tech companies’ Indian based labs were granted 50% more patents than their Chinese counterparts.

China’s shift from low-cost manufacturing to innovation is a case-study in how government policies, particularly insufficient patent protection, can inhibit innovation. Gupta and Wang claim that China’s heavy R&D investment have led to unimpressive results since foreign companies are wary about intellectual property protection in China.

While China accounts for 20 percent of global R&D expenditure, second to the US at 26 percent, they are granted relatively few international patents. Only 2.2% of USPTO patents were of Chinese origin. More patents originated in nations like Japan (18.8%) and Germany (5.5%).

China Logged a Record-Breaking 1 Million Patent Applications in 2015

Ananya Bhattarchya, Editorial Fellow, Quartz

According to a World Intellectual Property Organization report, global patent applications were up 7.8 percent in 2015 to 2.9 million filings. China emphasizes patent quantity over quality and that much of local research is not original research but rather adapting existing inventions for Chinese markets. In line with this theory, the Chinese patent office received 1,010,406 of the 2.9 million global patent applications. In second was the USPTO with 526,000 applications and the top 5 patent offices handled 82.5 percent of applications.

Government subsidies and foreign companies applying for Chinese patents for greater IP protection in the country drives the patent increase.

While China’s office has seen the greatest growth, the USPTO remains the leader in foreign patent applications with nearly 238,000 foreign patent applications.

Happy Holidays from the McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The Innovation Weekly Roundup will return in 2017.

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McNair Center Weekly Roundup

Innovation Weekly Roundup: 11/11/16

Weekly Roundup is a McNair Center series compiling and summarizing the week’s most important Entrepreneurship and Innovation news.

Here is what you need to know about innovation this week:

Silicon Valley Reels in Wake of Trump’s Presidential Victory

Joshua Brustein and Eric Newcomer, Bloomberg

Silicon Valley tech giants became unlikely political players in this election cycle. The results of the election leave the Valley in an uncertain position. Clinton received 114 times the amount of campaign contributions than Trump from the tech industry, so it should come as no surprise that a Trump presidency was not the industry’s favored outcome. The immediate threat to tech companies with the election of Donald Trump is the possibility of stringent immigration restrictions. Restrictions on immigration make it difficult for high skilled employees to work in the US. Furthermore, Trump’s lack of a clear plan for technology and the tech sector has left the industry in a state of limbo.

Election Day’s Tech-Related Triumphs — and Failures

Jamie Condliffe, MIT Tech Review

Many ballot initiatives on Tuesday were tech-related. Florida voted against an initiative that would have forced those with solar installations to give up payments for energy they feed back into the grid. The outcome will promote the expansion of home solar. Nevada voted to deregulate its electrical market. In transportation innovation, Seattle approved a $54 billion project to develop 62 miles of light rail and 37 new rail stations. Washington state rejected the first carbon tax in the US, partly over concerns that it failed to raise enough revenue for clean energy projects. Montana voted against a proposal to establish and allocate $20 million to the Montana Biomedical Research Authority.

How the tech industry is reacting to Donald Trump’s improbable victory

Paul Sawers, Contributor, VentureBeat

While Trump has been outspoken on economic reform, he largely did not address the the technology industry. While Paypal Founder Peter Thiel supported Trump throughout his candidacy, the majority of tech entrepreneurs expressed dismay over the possibility of Trump presidency. VentureBeat’s Sawers includes several Tuesday night tweets from tech industry leaders on the outcome of the election.

Results of the Clarity of the Record Pilot

Michelle K. Lee, USPTO Director & Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property

USPTO completed its Clarity of the Record Pilot, a program within the Enhanced Patent Quality Initiative. The Clarity of the Record Pilot enhances patent quality by identifying best practices for clarifying aspects of the prosecution record.

68 unique data points were measured, and each point represents a best practice. Examples of best practices include separately addressing independent claims or providing specific limitations in claims that are anticipated by prior reference when used to reject multiple claims. During the pilot, examiners used 14 percent more best practices in pilot cases as opposed to a control group.

The USPTO will be holding a Patent Quality Conference on December 13 to share more information on the Enhancing Patent Quality Initiative.

Women in STEM: Closing the Gap

Taylor Jacobe, Research Assistant, McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

McNair’s Taylor Jacobe focuses on the slow growth in women’s presence in STEM and innovation. Jacobe provides robust, global evidence of the economic benefits of integrating women into the workforce and encouraging girls to pursue careers in these fields.

The Obama administration has made efforts to introduce such initiatives, including work-life balance programs and speaking tours with successful women. However, much work remains in combating gender inequality in the workplace, especially within the STEM fields.

The solution to this inequity is neither simple nor obvious. Jacobe recommends a combination of policy changes aimed at eliminating cultural barriers for women and increasing education opportunities for girls.

Women represent 19.6% of the staff at the top 25 tech companies

Dean Takahashi, Contributor, VentureBeat

A recent study by hiring firm HiringSolved reveals that women constitute only 19.6 percent of staff at the top 25-tech companies. The study indicates a critical need for  integration of women into technology and innovation.

Many Silicon Valley tech giants have introduced measures to address the gender imbalance in their workforce. HiringSolved’s study relies on machine learning and artificial intelligence to sift through its databases of information on gender, ethnicity, and age. Although the firm’s methods are by no means foolproof, the results are telling.

Thank you to Meghana Gaur for contributing to this week’s innovation roundup.

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McNair Center Women

Women in STEM: Closing the Gap

Economists around the world emphasize the benefits of integrating more women into the workforce. While we are seeing slow growth in women’s presence in many sectors, the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields at the core of innovation seem to be especially lacking in girl power.

In 2014, women comprised approximately 47 percent of the U.S. workforce. Within the innovation-focused STEM fields, women only account for about 19.5 percent. This underrepresentation of women is not only holding women back from success and achieving their full potential, but also preventing the U.S. economy from realizing the wide array of benefits which come from increasing women’s labor force participation.

Why We Need More Women in STEM

When women get involved in STEM fields, they are rewarded. Compared to similar women who are working in non-STEM fields, the salaries of women  in STEM are 33 percent higher. For men, the difference is only 25 percent. Not only are salaries higher, but the gender pay gap is also smaller. A 2011 U.S. Department of Commerce study found that the average gap is 21 percent in non-STEM jobs. For STEM jobs, this gap is only 14 percent.

Women aren’t the only ones who benefit. Companies that place an emphasis on gender equality and hiring women tend to see positive impacts on their productivity and success. For companies marketing to women, the Harvard Business Review has shown that having input from women improves their “likelihood of success” by 144 percent. Innovative firms, along with many traditional businesses, can benefit from having female perspectives to help reach female customers.

Gender diversity in the workplace also enhances creativity among workers. When researchers at the University of Maryland and Columbia University teamed up to study top leadership in Standard and Poor’s Composite 1500 list, they found that female representation in leadership positions is associated with a $42 million increase in average firm value. They also saw that companies which emphasized innovation received higher financial gains when women were in top management.

U.S. Initiatives to Empower STEM Women

The Obama Administration has made efforts to increase women’s involvement in STEM. In 2009, President Barack Obama created the White House Council on Women and Girls, a team that coordinates U.S. policy, legislation, and programs to address the needs of women and girls.  The Council has made women’s involvement in STEM a particular priority. They have announced multiple initiatives, like Title IX protections for equal education, work-life balance programs, and speaking tours for successful women innovators. The administration also made efforts to eliminate the gender pay gap through the creation of an Equal Pay Task Force in 2010 and an executive order affecting federal contractors in 2014.

Obama Signs the Executive Order creating the White House Council on Women and Girls

These actions alone cannot address the full extent of gender inequality. However, they may improve the situation. Policies that encourage girls to explore their interest in STEM give girls the opportunity to develop passions in these fields. Once these passions become careers, flexible and non-discriminatory policies in the workplace can incentivize women to stay involved in STEM throughout their careers.

Women in STEM around the World

In North America and Western Europe, on average, only 32 percent of researchers, defined as “professionals engaged in the conception or creation of new knowledge, products, processes, methods and systems and also in the management of the projects concerned,”  are women. Japan, one of the leading tech development nations, has a mere 15 percent. Surprisingly, Central Asia has the highest average proportion of women researchers, with 47 percent.

The United Kingdom ranks second in world scientific achie1512b16-women-in-science-interactive-map-researchers-un1-1vement, behind the United States. 35.7 percent of researchers in the UK are women. Within solely STEM fields, though, the proportion of women is even lower: only 14.4 percent. This trend is apparent across many of the nations with the highest investments and achievements in STEM.

Differences in gender norms affect incentives for women to enter these fields. In some regions, like India, women are expected to be caretakers and homemakers. Their participation in STEM, and the workforce in general, is therefore often very low. On the other end of the spectrum, there are certain areas in Asia where gender stereotypes regarding math and science are less prevalent. In these areas, STEM interest is greater among women than men.

Culture clearly has an effect on the proportion of women who get involved in STEM professions. A prevailing stereotype exists in American society that women are inferior to men in math and science. Although this stereotype has been proven untrue, societal beliefs and expectations can have an effect on women’s empowerment. Research by Claude M. Steele shows the effects of stereotypes on performance and self-perception. If we want to see a change in the proportion of women in STEM, we need to change our culture.

What is the Future for Women in STEM?

Remedying the gender gap in innovation fields is not a simple or quick process. It requires a combination of education for girls, policy changes that eliminate barriers for women workers, cultural changes, shifts in societal prioritization of gender equality, and much else besides. At the current progress rate, we are a long way from eliminating the gender gap. However, with concerted effort from policymakers, educators, and employers, there is hope for a fairer and more productive future.