Intel 2021 diversity and inclusion report shows small progress amid pandemic

venturebeat.com:

Did you miss a session from GamesBeat Summit 2022? All sessions are available to stream now. Learn more. 

Intel released its 2021 diversity and inclusion report as well as 2020 pay data, and it shows it was challenging to keep diversity progress going in the midst of the pandemic.

Overall, the numbers were flat or slightly down. In 2021, Intel said that 27.7% of its global employees were women, compared to 27.8% in 2020 and 27.5% in 2019 on a global basis. For the U.S., 25.8% of the workforce was women in 2021, compared to 26.3% in 2020 and 26.4% in 2019.

Also in the U.S., 16.1% of the workforce was underrepresented minorities, compared with 16.3% in 2020 and 15.8% in 2019. In 2015, Intel’s previous CEO Brian Krzanich pledged to spend $300 million on diversity and make Intel into a more diversity company.

But the company with 120,000 employees showed some progress in some areas. The board of directors had 30% women in 2021, compared with 30% in 2020 and 20% in 2019. And underrepresented minorities in the U.S. hit 7.8% in 2021, compared to 7.6% in 2020 and 7.3% in 2021.

Dawn Jones, Intel’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, said in an interview with VentureBeat that she looked on the numbers optimistically, given how vulnerable diverse populations of women and underrepresented minorities (Black, indigenous, and LatinX) were during the pandemic.

“I’m an optimist. I like to look at what’s possible instead of what’s not. If we can take anything positive out of the last couple of years, the ability to have people work from anywhere opens up company’s ability to obtain talent from anywhere. And I think that’s a differentiator for companies. I think you have to really lean into it. You can’t take old traditional solutions to