(Credit: Wikipedia, Haxorjoe)

The New York Times reported on an apparently fake study about gender and tech jobs.

Vox‘s Kelsey Piper flagged the questionable study, which claimed gender-blinding in tech resumes resulted in 54% women getting interviews and non-gender-blinding resulted in 5% women getting interviews. Piper wrote in part, “The ‘study’ was conducted by tech recruiting firm ‘Speak With a Geek’. It was first covered here: https://www.cnet.com/news/when-tech-firms-judge-on-skills-alone-women-land-more-job-interviews/ …. It also got coverage a few other places. No one, anywhere, linked to the study. The study does not appear to have been published anywhere.” She noted she couldn’t locate the study and Speak with a Geek didn’t have a webpage or active social media.

iMediaEthics wrote to Speak with a Geek’s e-mail address, but it bounced back immediately. The New York Times only told iMediaEthics, “The editors’ note thoroughly addressed the issue and we don’t plan to comment beyond it.”

In an article for Vox, Piper also noted there were some questionable issues with the purported study. “Some things about the study are confusing even aside from the shocking size of the effect: Who would select any candidate for an interview when “names, experience and background” weren’t provided? Companies were shown the exact same candidates twice? These are questions we could answer by looking at the methodology in more detail, if it were available.”

CNET reported on the study back in 2016 and its article is still intact.

A Feb. 22 New York Times‘ editor’s note reads:

“An earlier version of this article cited a study conducted by the firm Speak With a Geek into gender-blind tech-job applications. After the article’s publication, questions were raised about the study. Upon further review, the magazine has been unable to confirm that this study was undertaken as described, and so reference to it has been removed from the article.”

(As an aside, the New York Times article also carries three corrections for errors about which school a professor was affiliated with, a group’s name, and someone’s age.)

Hat Tip: Breitbart