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| Apple's iPhone event had record number of women on stage, but why did it Photoshop one? | |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| After years of Apple events starring the same four-person executive team, of Craig Federighi, Eddy Cue, Phil Schiller and Tim Cook, the absence of any female representation on stage had started to be a running joke – albeit not a funny one. | After years of Apple events starring the same four-person executive team, of Craig Federighi, Eddy Cue, Phil Schiller and Tim Cook, the absence of any female representation on stage had started to be a running joke – albeit not a funny one. |
| Even after the hiring of Burberry’s Angela Ahrendts to head up the company’s retail operation in 2014, the biggest company in the world still managed to run overwhelmingly male-dominated keynotes. At the company’s WWDC event in June 2014, and at the launch of the iPhones 6 and Apple Watch, no women were on stage at all. | Even after the hiring of Burberry’s Angela Ahrendts to head up the company’s retail operation in 2014, the biggest company in the world still managed to run overwhelmingly male-dominated keynotes. At the company’s WWDC event in June 2014, and at the launch of the iPhones 6 and Apple Watch, no women were on stage at all. |
| Even March’s Apple Watch event featured just one woman, supermodel Christy Turlington Burns, who came on stage to discuss running a marathon with the new device. Critics were quick to draw a link between the failure of representation at the highest levels, and other oversights in the company, such as the lack of period tracking in Apple Health. | Even March’s Apple Watch event featured just one woman, supermodel Christy Turlington Burns, who came on stage to discuss running a marathon with the new device. Critics were quick to draw a link between the failure of representation at the highest levels, and other oversights in the company, such as the lack of period tracking in Apple Health. |
| But there are signs that the company is responding to criticism. The latest version of Apple Health, released as part of iOS 9 on 16 September, does indeed track reproductive health, Cook announced in June 2015. And at that same event, two female Apple employees (Jennifer Bailey and Susan Prescott, the heads of Apple Pay and Apple News) took the stage. | But there are signs that the company is responding to criticism. The latest version of Apple Health, released as part of iOS 9 on 16 September, does indeed track reproductive health, Cook announced in June 2015. And at that same event, two female Apple employees (Jennifer Bailey and Susan Prescott, the heads of Apple Pay and Apple News) took the stage. |
| Wednesday’s iPhones 6S launch event saw the company move a step further, putting three women on stage: Jen Folse, a senior design producer at the company who introduced the new Apple TV; and two guests, Michelle Peluso, who introduced her company Gilt’s Apple TV app, and Irene Walsh, head of design at 3D4Medical, who demoed an iPad Pro edition of its medical app. | Wednesday’s iPhones 6S launch event saw the company move a step further, putting three women on stage: Jen Folse, a senior design producer at the company who introduced the new Apple TV; and two guests, Michelle Peluso, who introduced her company Gilt’s Apple TV app, and Irene Walsh, head of design at 3D4Medical, who demoed an iPad Pro edition of its medical app. |
| Of course, against the 24 men who also took to the stage, it shows that Apple has a way to go to achieve a semblance of parity. But the company is apparently taking to heart the statement Cook made in June when he said that the lack of diversity in tech was “our fault”. | Of course, against the 24 men who also took to the stage, it shows that Apple has a way to go to achieve a semblance of parity. But the company is apparently taking to heart the statement Cook made in June when he said that the lack of diversity in tech was “our fault”. |
| “‘Our’ meaning the whole tech community,” he added. “I think in general we haven’t done enough to reach out and show young women that it’s cool to do it and how much fun it can be.” | “‘Our’ meaning the whole tech community,” he added. “I think in general we haven’t done enough to reach out and show young women that it’s cool to do it and how much fun it can be.” |
| But apparently Adobe didn’t get the memo. | But apparently Adobe didn’t get the memo. |
| Invited on stage to demonstrate the company’s new suite of iPad design software, Adobe’s Eric Snowden rattled through a number of cool tricks, from automatically turning scribbles with the $99 Apple Pencil into coherent layout, to handling any of the company’s 1,000+ truetype fonts. | Invited on stage to demonstrate the company’s new suite of iPad design software, Adobe’s Eric Snowden rattled through a number of cool tricks, from automatically turning scribbles with the $99 Apple Pencil into coherent layout, to handling any of the company’s 1,000+ truetype fonts. |
| But then came the tone-deaf decision to demonstrate a new app for retouching images, called Photoshop Fix, by “fixing” a model’s smile. “I wish she had a little bit more of a smile. I think it would warm up the design quite a bit. Luckily we have an app for that,” Snowden said, before tweaking a slider in the app to alter her appearance. | But then came the tone-deaf decision to demonstrate a new app for retouching images, called Photoshop Fix, by “fixing” a model’s smile. “I wish she had a little bit more of a smile. I think it would warm up the design quite a bit. Luckily we have an app for that,” Snowden said, before tweaking a slider in the app to alter her appearance. |
| From the company whose flagship product’s name is synonymous with unrealistic images of female bodies, the sight of a man doing the technological equivalent of shouting “give us a smile, love” is perhaps not surprising, but it is unhelpful. | From the company whose flagship product’s name is synonymous with unrealistic images of female bodies, the sight of a man doing the technological equivalent of shouting “give us a smile, love” is perhaps not surprising, but it is unhelpful. |
| So, while it is good to see more women on stage at a major tech launch, just 12.5% is little to shout about – and, as the Photoshop incident illustrates, the industry still has a very long way to go. | So, while it is good to see more women on stage at a major tech launch, just 12.5% is little to shout about – and, as the Photoshop incident illustrates, the industry still has a very long way to go. |