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Women face inequality in Apple keynote speech

Women constantly face inequality in every facet of their lives, whether it be their decision to not have children or the wage gap. Being a woman myself, it comes as no surprise that a company which touts itself as ‘inclusive’ hasn’t really changed anything when it comes to inequality within the workplace.

I’m talking about Apple and the fact that they’re always happy to SAY that they’re inclusive, but when it comes down to showing it, they just don’t deliver. The huge organisation recently delivered keynote speeches, an overwhelming majority of which were from white men.

women
Shocker, right? Source.

‘But wait!’ you cry, ‘Isn’t this article about women and inequality!?’

Yes, I’m getting there. Apple’s Worldwide Developers’ Conference keynote went for approximately 130 minutes. Men’s speeches filled up 117 of those minutes (according to approximations from MIC).

Guess how many minutes women spoke for.

Nine.

NINE MINUTES.

That’s not even factoring in that they were generally showing off a product or having to share the stage with a male who was talking over them anyway.

Fascinating. It’s a bit depressing for any women who want to get into the tech industry because this right here is just proof that it’s all a boys’ club anyway. Hopefully women don’t get discouraged by this and still try to move forward.

Apple didn’t do any better last year when it came to diversity either, with men hogging the keynote speeches for 99 minutes and women speaking for just eight. But hey guys, we’ve gone up a whole minute from last year, so I guess we should be grateful, right?

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JUNE 13: Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering, introduces the new macOS Sierra software at an Apple event at the Worldwide Developer's Conference on June 13, 2016 in San Francisco, California. Thousands of people have shown up to hear about Apple's latest updates. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
Speeches at the 2017 Apple WWDC were dominated by males (source)

It’s not all bad. More and more females are learning to code thanks to Karlie Kloss’ initiative to get more women in tech, so at least that’s something.

However, until the bigger tech companies make more of an effort to include women in tech, they’ll still feel like they’re unnoticed within the industry. It’s a shame. Hopefully they will fix it soon, but I doubt it.