SAN FRANCISCO, July 16 — Though the company is predominantly made up of white men, particularly in leadership positions, Facebook is slowly — very slowly — getting closer to their diversity goals.
Over the years, Facebook has committed to fight for racial justice using a variety of different approaches. Product teams have been created that are “specifically focused on inclusion,” company policies have been modified to enhance diversity within Facebook, and structural shifts have been implemented to support inclusion both in the development of products and policies.
Systemic inequalities have been addressed at Facebook, and slowly but surely, the company is evolving to reduce these disparities. According to the Chief Diversity Officer Maxine Williams, “Facebook has committed to increase the representation of leadership in the company.
Yesterday, Facebook published the 2020 iteration of their annual Diversity Report which outlines who’s employed at the company and in what position based on their ethnicity and gender.
For the most part, the ethnicity representation in all types of roles — technical, non-technical, and leadership — has steadily increased since 2014. Across the board, however, technical roles are made up mostly of white men. Overall, over the past six years the representation of women in the company has increased from 31 per cent to 37 per cent; in terms of technical roles, this has jumped from 15 per cent to 24.1 per cent.
The representation of white people in the company has decreased from 57 per cent to 41 per cent since 2014, though that of black and hispanic people has increased by just 1.9 per cent and 2.3 per cent, respectively. Globally, non-white people gained the most represetation over the year in non-technical roles.
Regardless of this slow progression, an upward trend of inclusivity at Facebook is clearly evident. Though the evolution pace would benefit from an increase, the company is slowly but surely on their way to racial equality. — AFP-Relaxnews
