Google Executive Eric Schmidt ends up Facing Criticism from Company’s Own Diversity Manager

Google Executive Chairman was joined by Walter Isaacson and Chief Technology Officer for the United States region, Megan Smith, while speaking at the 'How Innovation Happens' talk at South By Southwest festival.

Eric Schmidt was blamed by his company's own diversity manager after talking a lot about gender inequality in the tech industry that he actually started to drown out his female counterpart.

The Wall Street Journal reported that at numerous points throughout the discussion, Schmidt would cut Smith off, interrupting her to make his own points. An audience member also challenged Schmidt for continuously interrupting Smith throughout the session.

The challenger was Google's own Judith Williams, head of global diversity and talent programs, who even carries out workshops within Google to educate staff about the unconscious biases that contribute to discrimination in the workplace.

According to the Wall Street Journal, "Schmidt opined on which of two questions Smith should respond to. Later, he interjected mid-sentence with thoughts on Raspberry Pi".

Earlier, he had said that lack of women in the field of computer science is a tragedy. However, Schmidt did not answer Williams, the newspaper reported.

A senior software engineer at visual discovery start-up Pinterest, Tracy Chou, also observed Schmidt's behavior. Chou has even played a large role in pushing tech giants to release transparency reports giving details about gender diversity statistics.

It is said that the incident was a sheer example of what Jessica Bennett, writing in Time magazine earlier this year, has dubbed 'manterrupting', or the 'unnecessary interruption of a woman by a man'.

GenderAvenger Tally, an online tool that allows people to quickly create and tweet pie charts showing the gender breakdown, also urged SXSW attendees to keep tabs on the festival's representation of women.