Dive Brief:

• Women make up only about 30% of leadership roles and less than 27% of technical roles at major tech companies such as Twitter, Amazon, Apple and Google, according to numbers reported by those companies and examined by Recode.

• Twitter has the highest rate of female leadership at 30%, but also maintains the lowest rate of women in technical positions, at 15%.

• Facebook has the highest number of people of color in technology jobs. But overall just over 30% of leadership at Amazon, Apple and Google is either Asian, Latin or black.

Dive Insight:

The diversity in tech controversy was brought into the spotlight again this week after Google engineer James Damore posted an internal memo criticizing the merits of the company's diversity initiatives and accusing the company of "creat[ing] a politically correct monoculture that maintains its hold by shaming dissenters into silence."

Google promptly fired Damore, but the PR damage was already done, prompting other tech companies to defend efforts at creating a more diverse workforce.  

Tech companies of all shapes and sizes have made a big deal over their diversity programs over the last several years, yet evidence suggests the efforts have made little difference so far.  Women made up just 19% of CIO positions at leading firms in the U.S. last year.

Part of the problem could be the pipeline, at least when it comes to gender diversity. In the U.S., only about 18% of computer science majors are female. But new evidence suggests a shift may be underway. This summer brought change to CIO positions in major corporations, and many of the positions went to women, according to CIO. Of those listed, women made up one-third of the new CIO hires.