Well, it’s about time. A technology company is finally — finally — dedicating money to expanding workplace diversity.

The New York Times recently reported that Intel announced it would place $30 million toward helping make the company more diverse. Intel executives want to make its work force better reflect “the United States within five years.” If the company’s workplace diversity goal succeeds, it will “increase the population of women, blacks, Hispanics and other groups by at least 14 percent,” reports the Times.

Intel also has created a $300 million fund that will be used over the next three years. The company’s fund will be used to recruit minorities and women. And once the company recruits these new employees, it also plans on making the overall technology industry — an industry that is notorious for excluding and harassing women and minorities — “more hospitable to them once they get there.” The money also will fund engineering scholarships, “support historically black colleges and universities,” and help bring more women into the gaming business. Looks like Intel has learned a lot since October 2014’s GamerGate.

This devotion of money is incredibly timely and important given that just recently, a handful of big technology companies reported that they are compromised of the following:

– Roughly 70 percent employees are men, which means only 30 percent are women.
– “Depending on the company, blacks account for anywhere from 2 to 7 percent of workers at big tech companies.”

Yikes.

While this move by Intel is awesome within itself, it is so, so important because it will inevitably pressure other large tech companies (we’re looking at you, Apple and Google), to replicate Intel’s move.

What do you think about Intel’s move toward equality? Do you think it’s enough? What other industries do you think could benefit from this type of move? Share your thoughts in the comment section!

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Image: Thomas Cloer

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