I think it's weird that this is even a thing. That people keep track of these numbers and call them out.
And the message from Tim Cook is even stranger:
As CEO, I'm not satisfied with the numbers on this page. They're not new to us, and we've been working hard for quite some time to improve them.
Why? For the sake of moral, for marketing purposes? What's wrong with the numbers? It's not clear why he's not satisfied with them.
He's saying that diversity is a goal in itself, which is just nuts. You should seek to employ the best people you can, *regardless* of gender or skin color.
This is basically a problem looked at from the wrong angle. We see a set of numbers and the equality compass tingle and we say "well this isn't right, we must fix this!"
But why? What is it that needs to be fixed. What needs to be "fixed" is whether or not the *reason* for this number is that the ones hiring people have biases, but the number doesn't tell us that. We can make some assumptions, but assumptions means shit.
Apple - or any company, please make sure you hire the right person for the job, regardless of gender or origin.
Later in the text he praises two select employees which exemplifies this "diversity", one is a handicapped woman and the other is someone that supposedly hires a lot of diversified people.
What does this say? It says that for Tim Cook to notice you, you need to be handicapped and do a god job in spite of your handicap. Just doing a good job won't suffice. He has 98k employees, and I bet there are more than Kim that give great service in the Apple Store, what's the message to them?
And Walter, having (I assume) hired people from minorities. Wow, that's great. But has he hired *good* people? I don't care where they're from, I care whether or not he is good at hiring people that fit the role, not that fit a supposed quota.
In the end, I don't blame Tim Cook for this, this is a response to how the media and thus people look at companies. It's not different in any company in the west world, really.
If more men are found in management positions at a company it may not actually be the one doing the hiring that is the problem, or the company itself. It may just be that more men have sought the qualifications required for the job.
Whenever I read about equality and quoting gender (or race) into a position, I always come back to the idea of having car mechanics uniting demanding that more women should be quoted into their line of work just as some would suggest that men should be quoted into nursing or other female-heavy positions.
Focus on hiring the best person for the job.