Facebook Releases 2020 Diversity Report

Facebook released its 2020 Diversity Report earlier this week, citing increased representation for women and Black and Hispanic people on its work force across every category tracked by the company. The social network said in a Newsroom post that from 2014 through 2020, Black representation in non-technical roles in the U.S. grew to nearly 9% from 2%, while Hispanic representation went to 11% from 6%. Meanwhile, over the same period, women in leadership roles rose to 34.2% from 23%. Chief diversity officer Maxine Williams wrote in the Newsroom post, “Numbers for technical roles have remained more stubborn,” saying that will women have seen representation grow to 24.1% in 2020 from 15% in 2014, over the same time period, growth has been much slower for Black people (1.7% from 1%) and Hispanic people (4.3% from 3%). She also addressed the 50 in 5 plan the company introduced last year, with the goal of having underrepresented people make up at least 50% of Facebook’s workforce by 2024. Williams wrote, “In doing this, we aim to double the number of women employees globally and double the number of Black and Hispanic employees in the U.S. When we announced this goal last year, people from underrepresented groups accounted for 43% of our staff. Today, that number is up to 45.3%.” She added that Facebook is making an additional commitment to boost the representation of people of color in leadership positions in the U.S. by 30%, including a 30% gain in the representation of Black people in leadership, by 2025. Williams wrote, “These numbers, of course, are only one part of our story. We aim to create a workplace at Facebook where everyone has opportunity with dignity—an environment where people earn equal pay for equal work. For many years, we have conducted pay equity analyses, and we continue to be committed to pay equity. Our analyses confirm that we continue to have pay equity across gender globally and race in the U.S. for people in similar jobs, accounting for factors such as location, role and level.” She also reiterated Facebook’s pledges last month to spend $1 billion with diverse suppliers in 2021, including $100 million with Black-owned businesses, as well as $100 million in grants and ad credits to Black-owned small and midsized businesses, creators and nonprofits in the U.S., writing, “Recovering from this pandemic will take years. Ending the centuries-old scourge of racial violence and xenophobia will take longer still. And we will continue to empower and give voice to marginalized people and communities, on and off our platform, in the years to come.” [kickout id="1"] Williams wrote in her introduction, “We’ve seen people of color—Black, Latinx, Indigenous peoples—as well as those with disabilities, veterans, the elderly and those who work on the front lines dying at higher rates from Covid-19. We’ve seen Black Americans killed flagrantly, as if their lives do not matter; women subject to increased domestic abuse in their homes; xenophobic epithets hurled at Asians and people of various religions; violence against LGBTQ people; and so much more. We know in our hearts that our common humanity has not bred a common reality.” She continued, “At the same time, in every crisis, there are opportunities to help, to serve and to bring people together—to stand for community and, more important, to act for community. This has been our mission from day one at Facebook, and we want inclusion to be a leading factor—not a lagging one—in everything we do.”