Women should not ask for raise but believe in Karma: says Microsoft Corp’s CEO

Women employees all across the world face disparity in terms of wages and employment opportunities: this is a known fact, and different organizations everywhere are working towards correcting it. Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields, however, face a more refined version of this problem.

So what happens when a man representing one of the top tech firms in world, decides to announce that women should not ask for a raise but believe in their “karma” at a conference held to promote women employees in tech?

According to a report by Reuters, Satya Nadella, who became the CEO of Microsoft Corp. in February this year, was asked how women should get ahead in the tech world at a three-day conference in Phoenix, Arizona, that was aimed at celebrate women in computing. “It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along… Because that's good karma it'll come back because somebody's going to know that's the kind of person that I want to trust,” said Nadella.

Mashable>

Collectively, women earned only 78% of what equally qualified men received last year, according to a research by the American Association of University Women. This did not sit well with the audience at the conference and Nadella was subjected to heavy criticism following his comments.

Where Sheryl Sandberg stated that negotiating for women is like trying to cross a minefield backward in high heels, but women deserve it and should ask for their rightful increment; Nadella’s comments were quite offensive for many. The criticism was fuelled by the data released by the company that stated that only 29% of Microsoft Corp.’s employees were women.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Reuters

http://firstbiz.firstpost.com/biztech/microsoft-ceo-nadella-says-women-in-tech-shouldnt-ask-for-raises-but-trust-in-karma-104080.html