Intel CEO Brian Krzanich alluded to issues facing the tech industry over the past year, including Gamergate, as some of the main reasons they're making this strong push.
"Intel believes men and women should be treated the same. And, diversity is an integral part of our corporate strategy and vision with commitments to improve the diversity of our workforce." Today, Krzanich elaborated on that by saying Intel's own internal goal was to reach what he referred to as a "full representation in all levels" in its workforce by 2020. That not only includes its rank and file, but at the executive level as well.
This move also comes a few months after a lie filled mass spam campaign by Gamergate temporarily found Intel pulling advertising from Gamasutra. While Gamergate took that as a "win" in their book, Intel quickly corrected their mistake by reinstating the ads in relatively short time. Gamergate are, naturally, taking this latest announcement from Intel with all the maturity and respect that you the world has come to expect from them.
(via The Verge, Twitter, Twitter)
I think the people flipping their lids about "discrimination" are absolutely mental. A user on Polygon had a great response to cries of this being unfair:
I can understand a tiny bit of some of the worry here. People are somehow thinking that the people that are least qualified for a position will get it simply because of their gender or race. Has it happened in the past? Sure. Will it happen here? Who knows. I think it's kind of a bullshit worry to have on something that has a very real possibility of not happening. These people feel threatened because they won't be able to compete almost exclusively against other white males any more. They'll have to actually make strides to be unique since these other genders and races that will filter into those fields will bring fresh ideas and perspectives simply because they have led vastly different lives in the first place.
All of that doesn't matter the second the GamerGate tag is applied to what they're saying. A lot of these people are simply assholes and are not actually upset that Intel is pushing for equality. They are more upset that Intel is aligning themselves with women. Or they are upset that Intel is supporting Feminist Frequency/Anita Sarkeesian. Or they are bandwagon jumpers that "signal boost" whatever flavor of the week others deem important to talk about since they're all mindless drones. These GamerGaters feel "betrayed" by Intel. Remember that Intel was GG's first uh... "victory" when they started their stupid little spam email campaign. Intel won the hearts of so many little misogynists that day. That is until Intel realized how stupid that was and quickly reinstated their ads with Gamasutra. So yeah, they may bring up points that people could be concerned about, but none of them actually give a shit about any of that. They are just mad because they see Intel's move as an attack on GG and their narrow-minded view of the world.
And as for Intel running this campaign, I see this as either people will accuse the entire industry of inequality, or accuse any company taking the first step as being a publicity stunt. So... Which is the lesser evil? I'll take publicity stunt (if it even counts as one), because at least the result did offer some progress towards equality. I mean seriously internet, if nothing makes you satisfied then please stop being an armchair activist and turn off the computer. (I would be an [idiotic and naive] armchair intellectual, so don't mind me. I don't have an agenda.)