Silicon Valley wants to be a meritocracy. Here’s why it’s not. | Margret O'Mara

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If you're a great engineer, you can get ahead in Silicon Valley — to a certain extent.

- Silicon Valley prides itself on rewarding good engineers, regardless of gender or race. But that may not actually reflect reality.

- The Valley started out as a Mad Men-esque place, where women in particular were excluded. That culture still persists in the form of venture capitalists funding many of today's startups.

- Furthermore, many in Silicon Valley fail to acknowledge how becoming a startup founder is often restricted to certain groups of people and how more diversity can ultimately result in a better product or service.

Margaret O’Mara is the author of "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America." (https://amzn.to/2m26zH7) She is a professor of history at the University of Washington, where she writes and teaches about the history of U.S. politics, the growth of the high-tech economy, and the connections between the two.


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