Add chauvinism to the list of things Satya Nadella needs to sort out at Microsoft. The software giant's new boss was supposed to turn the company around after Steve Ballmer's departure. But Nadella has followed up a questionable acquisition last month with advice that women have "faith" in the system rather than ask for a pay raise. He may have later apologised, but his attitude endorses a faulty operating system.
The evidence that men are paid more for similar roles is pretty damning. On average, American women working full time make just 78 per cent of what their male counterparts earn, according to a 2013 study by the US Census Bureau. It's even worse for college-educated women in Silicon Valley, who earn 40 per cent less than men, according to not-for-profit organisation Joint Venture Silicon Valley. Women who do ask for raises may be in trouble. Research done at Harvard found that women who initiated salary negotiations were penalised in evaluations, while men were not.
This may explain why women working in science and technology leave these fields in droves early in their careers and don't return. Over half quit these industries by the time they're 40, according to the Center for Work-Life Policy. That far outpaces attrition rates in other fields like education or law.
As the boss of one of the most well-known companies on the planet, Nadella ought to know these facts and want to change them, rather than reinforce them. He did, at least, issue an apology soon after, saying he was "completely wrong". But a bit of PR lip service won't close the gender gap in pay, promotions and job offers.
It's a second strike against Nadella after splashing out $2.5 billion on Mojang, the maker of the game Minecraft. That harked back to predecessor Ballmer's vision of Microsoft everywhere, which fostered deals galore and squandered capital. Ballmer was also often out of touch with consumers, famously saying that the iPhone had "no chance" of getting any significant market share.
Being so patronising to women is at least as bad from a business perspective. They now constitute the majority of the US workforce and outpace men in both college enrolment and graduation. All companies, not just tech, should be trying to harness them. Any other approach should by rights generate nothing but a system error.
