【Terms of service】

The Terms of servicepeople in charge of the most important tech products in the world don't have much in common with many of their customers. Many are rich, American, white — and, of particular import today, male.

Take a moment to mark International Women's Day by reflecting on the dismal representation of women in the upper ranks of companies like Apple, Facebook, Intel, Microsoft and Google. Senior leadership at these companies is invariably dominated by dudes: Of these four, Apple is most gender-diverse, with 28 percent women.

SEE ALSO: 12 unstoppable women who are making tech a better place for everyone

At Microsoft, 17.9 percent of senior leadership is female; 24 percent at Google; 18.4 percent at Intel and 27 percent at Facebook.

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Sure, raw numbers are not the only important thing. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for example, has suggested a sort of thought-diversity is the reason his company keeps the litigious, Trump-supporting Peter Thiel on its board, and yes, the world's largest social network should absolutely do its best to acknowledge the largest array of viewpoints possible — even those held by quasi-vampiric, media-hating billionaires.

But you know, there's a difference between being the rich dude in a boardroom with an unpopular opinion and being a woman. Ignoring that is like waving away racial privilege with "I don't see color" — welcome to fantasyland, folks.

Reality isn't so kind to women. Consider Susan Fowler Rigetti, a former Uber engineer who tried 40 different ways, by our count, to get sexist behavior at the company reviewed by management before writing a scorched-earth blog post about all of it. Consider Ellen Pao, who resigned from her post as Reddit CEO after becoming the victim of one of the "largest trolling attacks in history." Consider how women are so underrepresented that some of the most successful American companies treat them — half the population, we'll remind you — like diversity hires!

SEE ALSO: The Wikipedia gap is the gender gap you haven't heard of

No, the tech industry isn't alone with these problems, and yes, many of these companies have pledged to do better. But as we continue to see the Ubers of the world step in it — over and over again — let's not forget that as of now, the companies doing the most to shape our future have a limited view from the top.

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Topics Apple Facebook Google Intel Microsoft

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