A former female software engineer is suing Twitter for allegedly using a secretive promotion process that favors men. She filed her class-action lawsuit one day after an ex-employee of Facebook alleged that bad behavior including sexual harassment and race discrimination occurred in the workplace.
Women are less likely to ask for and receive promotions. Huang, the ex Twitter employee is urging women employees to come forward if they were denied a promotion in the last 5 years.
What does this say about companies and treatment of their female employees in the workplace?
Interesting post! Not many people believe that situations like this still occur but they most certainly do! Some people are surprised to hear that this type of discrimination goes on behind the scenes of big, well-known, successful companies. It’s sad to say that this is still happening everywhere. From my personal work experience, I’ve always felt much more comfortable and supported as an employee while working under a female supervisor. So it’s frustrating that promotional opportunities are still being held back from women. I’d be interested to see if there was a correlation between the frequency of gender bias and/or discrimination and the size or successfulness of a company. Nevertheless, great post!
This is a great topic of conversation. In fact, it is right along the lines of what I am doing for my Senior Thesis. I think one of the big background factors is that though there is a growing number of women in certain jobs or receiving certain promotions than ever before, their involvement and participation is still dramatically lower than men’s. That is when the question comes into play if they are being discriminated against, or if the statistics just don’t allow for an equal number of women to receive the same opportunities and promotions as men. I personally believe that women don’t receive an equal share of power and promotion, however it is not always due to them being picked on or over looked. It also has something to do with how women approach these opportunities and the reservations they have, whether they are justified or not. Unfortunately, this is something that is new enough that it will take time and research and observation to get to the bottom of.
Even though equal rights have come a far way, there is still much more to go! The inequality may not be as blunt as it was 60 years ago but it still exists in a ‘hush hush’ manner as you described. In class we learned about similar things as this topic. That women are not as inclined to ask for a raise or take leadership roles than men. I hope Huang gets the justice she deserves!
This is the exact dilemma that we see coming up over and over again in the workplace. Women are stuck in a bit of a grey area when it comes to equality, promotion and dominance in the workplace. To excel it’s necessary to be goal orientated, assertive and competitive, which has been shown to be the common traits of a male speech community. This causes a problem because when a woman that is fully deserving of a promotion takes up these traits and pushes for that promotion she is viewed extremely negatively. In the end, it not only results in women becoming less likely to ask for promotions but it is also what leads to them being handed the short straw for pay and equality. Women somehow then begin to be viewed as less skilled or worthy within a workplace, which is as far from the truth as you could find.
Before this class, I didn’t really see how much women are being denied equal pay to their coworkers. This issue is very sad because despite how much women have worked to become “equal,” we are not completely equal. Looking back at the TED talk from Sheryl Sandberg, I completely understand the obstacles women, especially future mothers, have one climbing up the career ladder, but its amazing that women are still being treated with lower pay just because of their sex.
Great post! Being a women in the twenty-first century comes with many struggles. Within the workplace, a women will have to work just as hard to be paid 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. For class, we watched a video by Sheryl Sandberg called “Why we have too few women leaders.” Sandberg explains how women need to believe in themselves and have the confidence that men have to exceed. Sandberg discusses how women under estimate themselves and men overestimate themselves. Sandberg wants women to “sit at the table” rather than on the side and to negotiate their pay. We’ve also talked in class about how men are more privileged in the workplace; the idea of “think manage-think man.” I think it is important for our society to recognize that women are treated unfairly in the workplace. Women should be able to achieve the same as a man.