Abstract

The case study “Gender Diversity Initiatives at Duolingo” talks about gender disparity in America’s software industry, research findings on the effectiveness of a diverse workforce, and Duolingo’s strategy to increase the number of women software engineers in its workforce. Women employees made up between 27 percent (Microsoft) and 47 percent (Netflix) of the workforce in major tech companies. But, the percentage was much lower when it came to actual tech jobs. In addition, women computer science graduates had become very selective, preferring to work in companies that had a fair representation of women employees. This was surprising in a progressive country like the US, which valued gender diversity at the workplace. Duolingo, a US-based language learning app, experienced this situation first hand when it hired fresh computer science graduates from universities in 2017. Of the candidates selected (both men and women), only men accepted jobs at Duolingo; not a single woman joined the company. On close introspection, Duolingo’s management found that women candidates had rejected its offer as the hiring panel consisted of only men, which gave the impression that Duolingo was a male dominated company. The company’s management, which strongly believed in having a more diverse workforce, revamped its hiring process to get more women software engineers on board. This strategy was very successful and helped Duolingo to hire an equal number of new women and men computer science graduates in 2018. Duolingo also explored ways to move beyond gender parity, looking to bring in more diversity at all levels of the organization that included other aspects such as race and disabilities.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand diversity management.
• Be aware of the benefits of having gender parity in an organization.
• Learn strategies that can be applied to improve gender parity.
• Know about factors that influence gender diversity.
• Gain awareness of characteristics of gender diversity.

Keywords

Leadership & Values; Hiring Policy; Gender Parity; Workforce Diversity; Women employees; Managing Diversity; Duolingo; Employee Productivity