One Place Samsung Didn't Copy Apple: Women Onstage

Samsung executive Younghee Lee, onstage at the Galaxy S6 unveiling.

Barcelona, Spain –– Samsung introduced its Galaxy S6 here in Barcelona on Sunday, and the accusations that it had stolen from Apple followed soon after. The G6’s speakers look like the iPhone’s speakers; its edges look like the iPhone’s edges; its fingerprint reader works like the iPhone’s fingerprint reader.

Internet comment sections will sort this out, I’m sure. But there is one area where Samsung certainly did not copy Apple, and for this it should be proud: Samsung’s biggest gadget unveiling of the year featured women onstage.

Two of the three largest roles of the night were assumed by women. The presentation started with Younghee Lee, Samsung’s executive vice president, global marketing for IT and Mobile Division, who would return to the stage several times throughout the night. She served as the emcee for Samsung’s biggest and most visible night of the year; she also delivered the night’s best and most surprising line, assuring the audience that although she wasn’t an engineer, she was certain that the Galaxy S6 wouldn’t bend. And the first deep dive into the Galaxy S6’s particulars –– after a brief de facto introduction by Samsung Electronics CEO J.K. Shin and a few more details from Lee –– came from Hyun Yeul Lee, a vice president of UX innovation. Two of the first three speakers were women; 13 of the first 20 minutes of the event (the most important parts, let’s be honest) featured presentations by women.

Lee, a marketing executive for Samsung, served as the night’s emcee. 

This is important stuff. Technology in general, and Silicon Valley in particular, have gender diversity problems, which range from male-female imbalance to outright hostility toward women. USA Today has done terrific work covering all of this; the L.A. Times and Newsweekhave both published striking stories about tech’s gender problem within the last month.

As a company, Apple has often spoken out on issues of diversity, most notably in favor of gay rights. And a recent diversity report, showing that Apple’s workforce was 70 percent male, wasaccompanied by a letter from CEO Tim Cook, who wrote, “As CEO, I’m not satisfied with the numbers on this page.” 

One place Apple could easily improve its gender balance, if not on the page, would be onstage. Apple has long been criticized for the gender homogeneity of its product showcases. A 2014 investigation by ReadWrite’s Selena Larson found that, at developer conferences since 2007, Apple has featured 57 men and two women as speakers. Of Apple’s 10 top executives, nine are men; the lone exception, Angela Ahrendts, was hired in 2013.  If you’ve watched Apple product unveilings in the past several years, you might have noticed that Apple has had an almost DiMaggio-like streak of white male executives taking the stage. 

The contrast with Samsung couldn’t have been more stark.If they were placed side by side, you’d notice an immediate difference between Samsung’s latest product launch and Apple’s latest product launch: The Samsung launch featured women. Perhaps for the launch of the next iPhone, Apple could copy Samsung for once.  

Hyun Yeul Lee takes the stage from Younghee Lee, her colleague at Samsung.