Michelle Obama tells Apple developers: You’re missing out on my money unless you include more women

Michelle Obama was asked on Tuesday to “preach” about the role of women and tech — and she delivered.

Obama spoke to coders and entrepreneurs at Apple‘s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California, in a conversation with Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives. The former first lady, accomplished lawyer and humanitarian touched on the business implications of excluding women — who are often heads of household spending — from decision-making.

“Who are you marketing to? Who do you think is going to use these apps? If women aren’t at the table, you’re going to miss my dollar. Because you don’t really know me,” Obama said, according to clips of the talk posted on social media.

Thirty-two percent of Apple’s employees worldwide are women, while 22 percent of employees are underrepresented minorities, according to Apple’s website. The industry as a whole also struggles with hiring underrepresented groups: In a StackOverflow survey of 64,000 developers this year, 88.6 percent were male and 74.5 percent were white.

It’s something that Apple is trying to address. The company donates to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, National Center for Women & Information Technology and the National Society of Black Engineers, according to its latest shareholder proxy statement.

Obama said that looking at hiring workers in their 20s and 30s is too late. An advocate for women’s education, Obama argued that changes must be made to the educational system, especially by…

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