Microsoft showed a small increase in the proportion of women in its employee ranks, rising 1.1 percentage points to 26.6 percent, from 25.5 percent last year. The company released a report on its workforce demographics, revealing worldwide gender numbers and U.S. ethnicity numbers as of June 30. "We are encouraged," said Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Microsoft's chief diversity officer, who joined the company four months ago. "But we are clear that we are closer to the beginning of this journey than the end." Microsoft has revealed its demographics each November for the past few years, after increased scrutiny of the tech industry caused many Big Tech companies to offer a window into their diversity efforts. The companies are largely white and male, especially in technical and leadership roles. Microsoft is reporting its demographics as of June 30, to align with its fiscal year, rather than its previous date of the end of September.