Silicon Valley’s ‘bro culture’: faulty pipeline, or old fashioned misogyny?

The tech industry has started to acknowledge its problem with sexism and diversity, and is publishing more data than ever on its workforce. But is any real progress being made? Rory O’Neill reports.

It’s well known that the tech industry has a diversity problem. For many, the words ‘Silicon Valley’ conjure up an image of the quintessential ‘tech bro’. The term, alongside Silicon Valley’s ‘bro culture’, has become a byword for the tech industry’s sexism. 

The industry knows this as well. The past decade has seen an increased focus from industry leaders on changing the narrative around diversity and equality in Silicon Valley. One step, adopted by several big companies, has been to start publishing diversity and inclusion reports.

Each company has its own stated aims for publishing these reports, but in general, we can assume they’re intended to communicate to the public an awareness of the problem, demonstrate greater transparency, and highlight companies’ efforts to make a difference.