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osewalrusInteresting article on the widespread belief that we can solve the gender gap in tech through "resume blinding." Resume blinding is the practice of removing information from a resume that indicates gender (or race). This usually involves deleting names, but may also involve other changes. This follows results that had previously indicating strong bias (either conscious or unconscious) against candidates with "minority sounding" or female names.
It's not that resume blinding is ineffective. It is that tech recruiters are vastly overstating its effectiveness. This plays on the recent pressure on major tech companies to close the race and gender gaps in hiring. Tech companies that claim to have achieved magic results (such as an increase in placement of women by 54% through resume blinding) are in demand both from white women and people of color of al genders, and from employers eager to show their recruiting efforts reflect their commitment to diversity.
More detailed studies of resume blinding (which may also include things such as blurring voices in remote interviews to avoid intrinsic bias during the interview stage) do show some impact, and that can be significant over time (blind resume and blind audition for symphony positions, for example, improved placement of women in major professional symphonies by 25%, but over a 40 year period). The difficulty is that POC and white women face systemic problems at multiple stages in the education and job chain. As the article points out, if only 20% of graduates with CS degrees are women, blind recruiting is not going to help much. (Interesting study on the cycle of interest by girls and women in computer science here. Turns out high school is where girl's interest in STEM goes to die.)
It's not that resume blinding is ineffective. It is that tech recruiters are vastly overstating its effectiveness. This plays on the recent pressure on major tech companies to close the race and gender gaps in hiring. Tech companies that claim to have achieved magic results (such as an increase in placement of women by 54% through resume blinding) are in demand both from white women and people of color of al genders, and from employers eager to show their recruiting efforts reflect their commitment to diversity.
More detailed studies of resume blinding (which may also include things such as blurring voices in remote interviews to avoid intrinsic bias during the interview stage) do show some impact, and that can be significant over time (blind resume and blind audition for symphony positions, for example, improved placement of women in major professional symphonies by 25%, but over a 40 year period). The difficulty is that POC and white women face systemic problems at multiple stages in the education and job chain. As the article points out, if only 20% of graduates with CS degrees are women, blind recruiting is not going to help much. (Interesting study on the cycle of interest by girls and women in computer science here. Turns out high school is where girl's interest in STEM goes to die.)
