Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, said the initial absence of an app to record menstrual periods in the Apple Watch is evidence that the tech industry has become too dominated by men.
Gates argued that women’s voices must be heard to help ensure that technological advances do not exclude them. “Apple came out with their watch and it was supposed to record all these things about your health metrics but it didn’t record menstrual periods,” she said at a Friday discussion at the American Enterprise Institute. Apple later updated their application package to make this function standard in their products.
Having earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics, she lamented that a dramatic decline in graduation rates show that women are not pursuing a career in technology.
“We thought we were on the rise, just like in law and medicine, but it actually peaked at 38 percent… now were down to 17 percent,” said Gates. Though she said no one knows why this trend developed, she offered a few explanations including that the industry has become too male-centric, that they are not encouraged to develop an interest, or there are too few female role models.
She said maintaining a plurality of perspectives among programmers can help to ensure that the artificially intelligent machines we will increasingly rely upon reflect everyone’s needs.
“When I think of who is programming those machines and who those machines are learning from, at least from my perspective I don’t want them to all be 25-year-old men. I’d like there to be some women training some AI in the future.”
The Gates family has maintained staunch loyalty to the company which made them some of the wealthiest people in the world. When asked if she would ever consider using the Apple Watch, she said “No, I’m not going to own one.”
