According to the Labor Department, men working full time make 28 percent more than women. In Silicon Valley the situation is even worse: Men earn up to 61 percent more than their female peers, according to Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a research group.

Such figures make claims by Microsoft and Google fall flat. “You can explain away all of the little things and say we have no problems,” said Linda C. Babcock, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies the gender pay gap. “What you can’t explain away are the average numbers.”

You know what you can do, if you really want to help gender diversity in tech, as a middleclasswhiteman?

Next time you’re asked for your opinion.

Next time you’re asked to give a talk.

Next time some really meaty project requiring strategic, big picture, creative thinking comes along.

Next time that happens — and it will happen to you, if you’re a man of moderate to above-moderate talents — you say “No”.

And then you pass it on to a woman.

She might not be good. She may very well screw up. Be shrill. Boring. Not all women are clever. Not all women are gifted speakers. Not all women deserve those chances.

But neither did you.