A women’s computer science conference (Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing) was held on Thursday with the aim to celebrate women in technology. During the conference, the celebrated CEO of Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ MSFT) made remarks regarding women’s pay. He said that it is a good thing that women do not ask for a raise – mostly men do. He said that the women should continue this trend and just have faith in the system; they don’t need to ask for raises.

These comments lead to outrage, causing the stock to drop 2.7% down the next day. Later in the day, Satya Nadella apologized for making these remarks. In an email to all staff members of Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ MSFT), he said that he had been wrong and that he fully supported the programs which are working to close the gender gap in pays.

Maria Klawe, a director at Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ MSFT) and also the president of Harvey Mudd college, disagreed with the CEO immediately. She suggested that women should instead do a little digging into salary levels and the gender gap and practice asking for raises. Still, on Friday morning, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ MSFT)’s shares fell by 0.15%.

News on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ MSFT)

There was a furore on the social media as well, particularly on Twitter. Later, Satya Nadella took the time to tweet that he agreed he was inarticulate in terms of discussing women’s pay rises and apologized for the mistake.

He said that he supported the programs at Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ MSFT) and other companies in the industry, which aim at bringing more women into the tech industry and closing the pay gap between men and women. He is also a believer of equal treatment of men and women in industry since both invest equal efforts and talents.

Satya Nadella said that when women think that they deserve a pay raise, then the best thing they can do is just follow Maria Klawe’s advice and go and talk to the employers.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ MSFT) Business News

Earlier this year, Satya Nadella, an Indian by birth, took over from Steve Ballmer as the CEO of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ MSFT). He has aimed at making the company effective and robust. He has taken several steps with the purpose of cost-cutting.

Under Nadella, the company decided to cut 18,000 jobs which include over 12,000 of Nokia Inc (NYSE NOK) that were employed by Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ MSFT) as a part of an agreement. The jobs will be eliminated in the beginning of the next year.

Thanks for visiting the TechNews.org website. Be sure to catch all Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ MSFT) financial news, bookmark us and check all the videos and news articles regarding the Microsoft stock.