In 1928, Paul V. Galvin and his brother, Joseph, founded the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation, the Chicago-based company that would later be known as Motorola. And this month, on the company's 90th anniversary, Motorola is giving back.
In an effort to help the next generation of women in technology, Motorola Solutions announced a $90,000 donation to the Society of Women Engineers to kickstart a scholarship fund for women pursuing engineering degrees. Eighteen students will receive scholarships of $5,000 to attend accredited colleges and universities in 31 countries.
“We have about 140 women here at the company who are members of the Society of Women Engineers. We have been supporting the society from the Motorola Solutions Foundation for as far back as our current electronic records go,” said Matt Blakely, executive director of the Motorola Solutions Foundation and director of inclusion, diversity, and culture at Motorola Solutions.
In 2015, 19.9 percent of all bachelor’s degrees from engineering programs were awarded to women, and women made up 21.4 percent of undergraduates enrolled in engineering, according to an American Society for Engineering Education report. That year, women also received 25.2 percent of master’s degrees and 23.1 percent of doctoral degrees. On average, a mechanical engineering bachelor’s degree costs $164,824 in total, according to a CollegeCalc analysis.
“This gift unlocks a significant turning point for SWE,” Society of Women Engineers president Penny Wirsing said in a statement. “For more than six decades, we’ve provided women engineers with a unique platform and voice in the engineering industry. Thanks to the Motorola Solutions Foundation, we’re looking forward to empowering even more women around the world.”
During the company’s 90-year history, it has produced notable products ranging from a battery eliminator, which enabled radios to run on home electricity, to car radios, home entertainment radios and two-way pagers.
In 2011, Motorola, Inc. separated into two independent companies, Motorola Solutions, which provides communications products for governments and companies, and Motorola Mobility, which makes mobile cellular devices and cable video management equipment. Google acquired Motorola Mobility in 2011 for reportedly $12.5 billion and sold it to Lenovo for nearly $3 billion in 2014.
In addition to supporting SWE, the company has partnered with other organizations like National Association of Black Engineers, Illinois Diversity Council, Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement and National Coalition of Women in Information Technology. Aside from this donation, the company has also supported the Girl Scouts’ after-school robotics program and After School Matters’ STEM programs, Blakely said. The company has given $2.8 million in grants to more than 150 STEM-focused organizations in the U.S., he said.
“There is tremendous value in bringing people of different backgrounds, life experiences and diverse perspectives together,” Blakely said via a spokesperson in a follow-up email. “It is what has enabled Motorola Solutions to pioneer many [innovative] products and technologies.”
As Motorola Solutions supports diversity efforts externally, it, as well as many other tech companies, has examined its own staff diversity. The company’s employees and senior managers of color have increased during the past few years in the U.S. Internationally, the company has increased women in senior management, but the amount of women employees has dropped.
As of 2017, about 31 percent of U.S. employees were people of color, up from 29 percent in 2015 and 2016. That year, about 21 percent of Motorola's U.S. senior management were people of color, up from 18 percent in 2016 and 16 percent in 2015. While women in senior management positions internationally increased from 15 percent in 2015 to 18 percent in 2016 and 2017, globally the company’s women employees dipped from 29 percent in 2015 to 25 percent in 2016 and 2017, according to the company’s 2017 corporate responsibility report.
The company did not explain why it experienced a decline in women employees, but Blakely said in a follow-up email that it has implemented programs to “prepare female employees for leadership roles and recruit more women.”
