Nadella’s comment sparks debate over gender inequality in tech firms.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BANGALORE: Satya Nadella has apologized for his sexist remark made on Thursday at an event that focused on advising women in computing. He said women have to focus more on their work rather than ask for a hike in their salary.
The sexist comment from Microsoft’s new CEO became a debate on social media with people sending reprimands in Nadella’s blog and social media pages. The comment of Nadella has once again stirred up discussions on gender inequality while hiring employees in tech companies. It is a known fact that a majority of technology firms hire fewer women to men, adding to the comparatively less wages these companies offer for their female staffs.
Nadella’s comment came as an answer to one of the questions that came up during the event. He was asked to give an advice to the working women who are hesitant to ask for a hike in their salary.
Nadella’s answer took everyone by surprise – he said “It’s not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along†He went on to say that not asking for a hike in the salary and doing job unflinchingly is “good karma†and as a result of this the employee can gain the trust of the boss, which will reciprocate in getting higher positions and a better salary.
In the hours after the spilling of the chauvinist comment, Nadella had to face a huge public uproar and Microsoft was forced to post a memo on behalf of Nadella on their website. The memo says Nadella was completely wrong while answering the question and he believes that “men and women should get equal pay for equal work. And when it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it’s deserved, Maria’s advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask.”
Maria Klawe, the interviewer of the event and the president of Harvey Mudd College, and one of the directors of Microsoft, was quick to disagree with Nadella. She said women who strongly believe they deserve a hike should go ahead and ask for it without remorse. She also said that women employees do more homework than men before asking for a hike and they take time to get advice from people whom they trust.
The anti-women comment of Nadella is looked at as the reflection of growing animosity against women in the workplace. Only a very few tech companies have women in the boss’s seat – Yahoo! is one among them. The rest have male bosses who at times are insensitive to women.
According to latest figures by Redmond, a Washington-based company, 29% of employees in Microsoft are women and taking out the management staff, this number further shrinks to just 17%.