Is an infant named Maxima already one of the most powerful advocates of gender parity in the global world? In the world shaped by Facebook STEM and technology advancement for women, maybe.

Here’s a snip from my most recent op-ed on Digital Apex – Enjoy!

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Mark Zuckerberg famously became a new dad to a little girl named Maxima and recently posted some encouraging words for young ladies about the promise of future opportunities in the digital sector of society. When a Grandmother named Darlene Loretto responded to a recent status update on Zuckerberg’s Facebook page, outlining his personal challenges for 2016, Ms. Loretto thanked Zuckerberg for facilitating her own social connections via Facebook and mentioned that she tells her granddaughters to “date the nerd in school.” Zuckerberg promptly replied that “Even better would be to encourage them to *be* the nerd in their school so they can be the next successful inventor!”

That comment speaks to the subtle societal shifts taking place presently as digital companies attempt to get beyond the antiquated and sexist notion that women are somehow less capable of succeeding in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers.

When one looks at Facebook’s 2015 diversity report, it shows a workplace that remains dominated by Caucasian and Asian men, with 68% of employees being men – down only one percent from 2014’s 69% skew. Based on data released by Facebook itself, it’s easy to say that Facebook, from its inception to its current operations, continues to be steeped in sexism at the corporate level, even with a few high profile outliers in very visible corporate positions.

Facebook is not alone in its gender biases. The ratio of men to women working in the technology industry in general continues to be massively uneven. From Google (17% ladies) to Twitter (10% ladies), gender disparity in the tech workforce is something that we can easily point to, but do gender gaps in STEM careers actually stem from gender-based disparity in ability?

Researchers from Florida State University found that gender disparity is not based on actual difference in ability across genders. In fact, according to researchers, the differences actually boil down to a matter of perception…

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To read the remainder of the article, go to Digital Apex here.

(pictured: Facebook STEM Baby via Digital Apex)

Reprinted from Digital Apex (1/5/16)

And ICYMI, you can read all my work featured on Digital Apex right –> here

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