Apple CEO Tim Cook declared the tech industry “will not achieve nearly what it could achieve” until it diversifies, as he launched a new app store foundations program supporting female developers.
Speaking with the BBC, he added that: “The essence of technology and its effect on humanity depends upon women being at the table.”
Apple’s new UK-based App Store Foundations Program aims to address the gender imbalance in tech and coding, by specifically supporting all-female founders.
“Technology’s a great thing that will accomplish many things, but unless you have diverse views at the table that are working on it, you don’t wind up with great solutions.”
“Businesses can’t cop out and say ‘there’s not enough women taking computer science — therefore I can’t hire enough’,” Cook said.
The former COO of Apple, who took over from Steve Jobs in 2011, believes coding courses should be mandatory for high school students so that they leave with “working knowledge” of how coding and apps operate.
“We have to fundamentally change the number of people that are taking computer science and programming,” he said.
In a survey conducted last year, Apple recorded 35% female staff across its global workforce.
In October 2021, it joined a coterie of tech giants including Google, Snap, and Salesforce to form the “Catalyze Tech” coalition with the aim of improving representation of minority groups in Silicon Valley.
Cook’s latest App Store Foundations Program in the UK will be a continuation of previous European-based incentives that have reportedly supported over 1000 developers, providing what Apple describes as a “tailored curriculum in which they work closely in one-to-one and group sessions with App Store leaders”.
Jen Walsh, senior director of the App Store and Services, International said the UK has a “thriving developer community and we’re thrilled to play a role in supporting it”.
“Crucial to the continued innovation and progress of the App Store is ensuring there is a diverse set of developers that can build brilliant apps to meet the needs of users around the world,” Walsh said in a press release.
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“The launch of the App Store Foundations Program here in the UK, with its focus on female developers, will help nurture the existing community of female founders here and inspire the next generation to follow in their footsteps.”
Developers in the Program will learn marketing, editorial and monetisation skills, as well as coding and optimisation of Apple’s APIs. They will also have access to Apple experts.
One participant of the program is Zoe Desmond, founder of Frolo, an app for single parents to share advice and arrange meetups.
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Another participant is Alexia de Broglie, who co-created a personal finance education app called Your Juno, with her sister.
The app is designed specifically for women and non-binary people. De Broglie said she was shocked to discover that most of her fellow tech entrepreneurs were all men.
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“[The women] all know each other on a first-name basis, which is crazy, because there are so many men that are building start-ups, and they definitely don’t know each other,” she said.
On the company’s website, she explained that during the pandemic — as markets came crashing down — she and her sister, Margot, “…noticed a huge difference in the types on conversations we were having with our guy and girl friends.”
“Men were talking about their crypto investments and bragging about their returns, whereas women were never speaking about investing.”
“We decided to build a financial empowerment platform aimed at providing the best education in a fun way — a bit like the Duolingo of money.”
This article was first published by Women’s Agenda.
Jessie is a Women’s Agenda journalist.
