“We always had equal pay for equal work, but it's more about equal opportunity for equal work,” said Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella at the Times Talk event hosted by The New York Times. He said that even though the tech industry has made progress, it isn’t “sufficient”.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Reuters.
In a report by the NYT, Nadella said that even though gender parity is less of a problem with the tech industry, however, there still exists the problem of equal opportunities.
Silicon Valley of late has received its share of criticism in treating gender disparity and pervasive sexism that exists in these places. Uber and Google being the prime examples. In fact, in 2014 Nadella had once remarked that women should not ask for pay raises. As a part of his controversial statement, he had also said that instead women should trust in their 'karma' to give them the salary, they deserve.
At the event, Nadella apologised for his remark. He also said, that his answer came out of his personal experience. And further clarified, that his inability to take thinks into perspective made the matter worse.
“My job is about creating a system that allows women to participate, to feel free to ask for raise, to expect to be recognised for their progress. I had not internalised how the system was not working.”
At the promotion of his book Hit Refresh, Nadella also talked about immigration policy is the United States. He also spoke about US president Donald Trump’s removal of DACA (Deferred Action for Childood Arrivals immigration policy), which he had opposed.
In his talk he also discussed about privacy issues, prospects of artificial intelligence in jobs, gaming and other business acquisitions.
At the launch of Microsoft Ignite conference Nadella praised digital interventions in India for societal transformation. He noted that the rapid growth of Aadhaar rivals that of Windows, Facebook or Android. In his book, he wrote, "Aadhaar now has scaled to over one billion people, rivaling the growth of other platform innovations such as Windows, Android, or Facebook."
Published Date: Sep 28, 2017 09:30 am | Updated Date: Sep 28, 2017 09:30 am
