Analysis of Diversity Issues: Gender Discrimination at Facebook

This essay examines the issues of gender discrimination and the glass ceiling within Facebook. It begins by defining organizational diversity and its implications, focusing on gender-based disparities. The essay highlights specific instances of gender discrimination, citing complaints filed against Facebook regarding biased advertising practices that target men for certain job roles, and the impact of such practices on women and non-binary individuals. It then discusses the glass ceiling, a barrier preventing women from advancing in the company, and the lack of female role models and pay gaps. The essay uses theories like the attribution theory and agency theory to explain these issues. The essay concludes with potential recommendations for Facebook to address these diversity challenges and foster a more inclusive environment.

Running head: DIVERSITY ISSUE IN FACE BOOK
Diversity Issue in Face Book
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1DIVERSITY ISSUE IN FACE BOOK
Introduction
Organizational diversity refers to total makeup in relation to employee workforce in
an organization. Diversity is indicative of the differences pertaining to the different kinds of
personal traits like gender, age, race and ethnic origin. Facebook Inc is the name of a social
media company that is based within California. There are various kinds of devices like the
tablets along with the smartphones that can be used for getting access to the service.Gender
discrimination refers to kind of the discrimination that is on the basis of gender of a person.
Glass ceiling refers to metaphor that helps in representing invisible barrier which prevents the
demographic from rising beyond a particular level.The issues that have been addressed in the
essay are the gender discrimination and the glass ceiling practices in Face Book.This essay
throws light on the issue of gender discrimination taking place in Facebook. The essay also
talks about the glass ceiling issue taking place in the company. The essay talks at the outset
about the issue of gender discrimination taking place in Face Book. It relates to the theories
that makes the women inferior to the men in the arena of work. The essay then talks about the
issue of glass ceiling taking place in the Company. It points out the theories related to the
concept of glass ceiling. The essay concludes by talking about the recommendations that can
help the company in overcoming the problems related to diversity.
Issues in Facebook
Issue 1: Gender Discrimination in Facebook
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed complaint against Facebook as the
company involves itself in carrying out discrimination against the women along with the non-
binary people (Psmag.com 2019). The company has allowed the employers to target the men
in the advertisements that amounts to gender discrimination on the part of the company.
Communication Workers of America Labour Union has also filed charges against the

2DIVERSITY ISSUE IN FACE BOOK
company as the advertisements of the company lay emphasis on jobs in relation to the male
dominated fields. The job openings that are posted in Washington Post highlights openings in
relation to craftsmen along with the police officers that are primarily targeted towards the
male gender. This helps in bringing out the bias that exists towards the male gender and the
implicit contempt that the company has for the female gender.
The social networking company was making use of the targeted system that was
controlling the people who were seeing the advertisement.According to Bbc.com (2019),
there was one advertisement that has targeted specifically the men whereas there should be
another equivalent advertisement that has targeted the women .This can help in offering equal
opportunities to both the men along with the women. The targeting of users on the basis of
gender is harmless pertaining to the clothing brands however it can be said that it is unethical
in the case of the job advertisement. Civil Rights Act brought out in the year 1964 prohibits
the discrimination against any person on the basis of race, colour, religion along with the
gender. This law can be said to be applicable in every stage of the employment that includes
the recruitment.
The employers of the male-dominated fields advertising the job to only the men
prevents the women from working in those areas. ACLU Women’s Right Project has also
talked about the fact that the “non-binary” people who do not identify themselves with any
kind of specific gender are also meted out differential treatment by the company (Cnbc.com
2019). The advertisement campaigns launched by Facebook violates the federal law that
forbids the employers like the recruiting firms to carry out discrimination based on gender.
The technology of Facebook makes use of the tool for facilitating the practice of
discrimination.(Bbc.com 2019).According to Thesun.co.uk (2019),the job searches when
carried out were shown primarily to the men of a certain age that resulted into gender
discrimination for the company. The company can aim similar kind of advertisements to the

3DIVERSITY ISSUE IN FACE BOOK
women but the company has not taken any kind of necessary steps that can help them in
reaching out to the women audience. The advertisements given on Face Book are not
inclusive and this has drawn criticism from people living across the world.
The company Facebook have more than two billion active users in the monthly basis
and hence it can act as a important tool that can help them in reaching out to various kinds of
workers. Face Book acts as an employment agency that is liable for carrying out
discriminatory targeting. It has been argued by Nicolson (2015), that it acts as an active
participant in relation to the recruiting campaigns instead of passive publisher of the contents
like that of the traditional newspaper. Face Book has argued the fact that it is not an
employment agency however the state laws prohibit any kind of discrimination in any form.
The attribution theory talks about the fact that the success or the failure in the
workplace is on account of objective factors like the intelligence and the professionalism
(Scherer 2018). It can also be based on the subjective factors like the change or the luck.
According to Ljungholm (2016), the individual performance of the employees being able to
meet the expectations of the employers can be attributed to various stable factors.This theory
points forward to the fact that there are certain implicit ideas in the organization that assumes
the fact that the men in the society are superior as they have certain qualities that makes them
perform better as compared to the female counterparts (Palmore 2016). The qualities along
with the traits can help the men in delivering superior performance as compared to the
women. It is assumed in the organisation that the women would not be able to deliver
effective performance that causes the companies to recruit the male employees. It can be said
that the advertisements posted by Face Book favours the male gender because there exists the
assumption that the men can perform better as compared to the women and hence the
recruitment of the company should be on that basis (Hsiao, Auld and Ma 2015). The
company favours employing the men as it feels that they would be able to help in the growth

4DIVERSITY ISSUE IN FACE BOOK
and the development of the organization. The recruitment advertisements of Face book are on
the basis of the prevailing biased assumption prevalent in the society that the men have the
qualities along with the skills that can help them in excelling in the organization.
Issue 2: Glass Ceiling in Face Book
Glass ceiling describes the transparent barrier within the organization which prevents
the women in climbing up organizational ladder. It refers to underrepresentation of the
women within higher echelons of the organizational hierarchy. It is indicative of situation in
which vertical mobility of the men within the male dominated positions is found to be higher
as compared to the vertical mobility of the women (Peretz, Levi and Fried 2015).
The women aspiring to move up in the senior management positions cannot do so as
glass ceiling acts as a hindrance that prevents their career progression. Face Book does not
think about how they can nurture the ambition of the women. The dearth of that of high
profile role model makes it hard for the women in going up the professional hierarchy.
According to Heilman and Caleo(2018), the senior positions in Face Book does not offer the
flexibility that can help the women in being recruited to these professional positions. The
women need flexibility so that they can manage the childcare commitments. The women go
out to take care of the child that hampers the professional growth of the women. It has been
found that the female members in Face Book are victims of sexism that limits the
expectations of the women. There are very few women in the top management positions of
Face book that discourages the women from taking up the leadership roles.
There is pay equity gap in Face Book and the women in similar position to the women
are paid less as compared to the men.It has been stated by Tiwari, Mathur and
Awasthi(2018), that median gender pay gap has been found to exist in the company that
hinders the progression of women in the company. It has been found that the women are not

5DIVERSITY ISSUE IN FACE BOOK
highly valued in the company that impedes the progression of the women in the company.
The value can be understood in terms of money and it has been found that lesser value is
attributed to the women on account of the fact that they are paid a lot less when compared to
the men within the company.
Average bonus pertaining to the female Facebook employees was found to be 39.8
percent lower as compared to the male counterpart in the year 2017 as had been submitted to
UK government. In the year 2017, women comprised of 35 percent of the global workforce
of the company (Sahoo and Lenka 2016). It has been brought out by the company that the pay
disparities exist on account of the unequal representation in the company. There were 28
percent positions related to leadership and there were 19 percent positions that were technical
in nature in the company (Rathi 2018). This exhibits the fact that there were less number of
positions in the management of the company for the women that highlights the prevalence of
glass ceiling in the company. Google UK released the figures in relation to the gender pay
gap that highlights the fact that the mean hourly rate of the female employees was 17 percent
lower as compared to the male employees.
Face Book has been instrumental in submitting the pay gap number to that of the
government which shows that the company is lagging behind in relation to the workforce
diversity. Face Book has found to pay 60 % less pertaining to the bonuses as compared to the
male colleagues (Bbc.com 2019). The women rights organisations of UK have stated the fact
that it is shocking and it is detrimental for the career progression of the women. Men has been
found to take up 70.5 percent of that of the high-paying roles in the UK division and Face
Book has admitted to the fact that a large number of the engineering staff are belonging to the
male gender. The diversity data of Face Book reveal the fact that women comprise of 35 % of
overall staff that shows the glaring difference in between the male and the female population
of the employees within the company (Cnbc.com 2019).

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Agency theory refers to a principle that helps in resolving the issues pertaining to
relationship in between the business principles and the agents (Pepper and Gore 2015). It
helps in explaining the relationship that exists in between shareholders and that of company
executives. It states that the decisions are taken in an organization primarily in the interest of
that of owners of a company (Glass and Cook 2016). On the basis of the agency theory, it can
be said that the employers recruit the men as they feel that it would help the company in
achieving their targets and making profits.
Conclusion
Organizational Diversity is indicative of the differences that exist pertaining to
differences in the age, race and colour of the employees of an organization. Face Book has
targeted men in advertisements that gives rise to discrimination on the part of the company.
Communication Workers of America Labour Union has pointed out to the fact that charges
have been placed against the company as it has laid focus on male dominated roles in the
organization.
Pay equity gap exists in the Face Book because it has been found that women who are
working in the company are paid less when compared to that of men. It hampers the career
progression of women and deters them from moving up the organizational hierarchy. Women
of Face Book are not held in high esteem by the company that impedes their growth within
the company.
Recommendations
Face Book in the event of hiring should establish clear criteria that can help them in
making the recruitments in a justified manner in the organization. There should be clear
criteria for the evaluation that can help in recruiting potential women in the workforce of the
company. The criteria should be scrutinized very carefully in the event of making the

7DIVERSITY ISSUE IN FACE BOOK
recruitment decisions in the company. The process of decision-making should be re-evaluated
by the company that can help in breaking the tendency of the company of using the
stereotypes. The human resource policies of Face Book should be transparent that can
encourage the employment of both the men along with the female candidates. The
organization should be proactive in breaking down the stereotypes that can help in increasing
the competence of the women leaders. It can make the women come in the forefront in the
organization that can help in reduction of the pay gap existing in the organization.

8DIVERSITY ISSUE IN FACE BOOK
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