Facebook Ignoring Women in the Board Room

Facebook, which is currently preparing an IPO, has come under fire for lack of diversity on its board of executives. Currently, the seven directors are all white and male, leading to Facebook being attacked for its lack of female representation on the board. Organisations such as Ultraviolet have protested outside Facebook’s headquarters in an effort to encourage Zuckerberg to add women to his board before the proposed IPO occurs. CalSTRS has also previously appealed to Facebook to diversify their board, highlighting evidence that companies with varied board members perform better.

According to recent surveys, 58 percent of Facebook’s 900 million users are female. Is it ill-informed for the company to ignore the voice of so many of their users- nearly two times the population of North America?  In terms of Facebook’s business, is it naïve to completely negate the influence of half your target market? This is the argument many opponents are currently positing towards Facebook.  Many activists are sighting Zuckerberg’s reasoning for not employing a female director as sexist, claiming that he does not believe there is a woman with the technological experience suited for the job. If this is the case, look towards your management structure- Facebook’s own Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, could be appointed. Or, as Facebook needs to look towards advertising and media revenue streams, why not examine someone currently working in these sectors as to diversify the board’s experience also.

However, Facebook is not the first Silicon Valley company to ignore the benefits of creating a diversified and gender balanced board of executives. The longstanding Adobe Systems Incorporation does not have any women directors, with companies such as Apple, Groupon and LinkedIn only having one female director. It appears to be a reoccurring trend to ignore the power and opinion of women in the technology firm's board rooms.

However, at the end of the day it is important to consider not only the gender balance argument. Is it really the best policy to employ an equal amount of male and female directors if they are not best suited to the job? 

The Plight of the Not-For-Profit Sector

Sony has revealed that they experienced a loss of 159 billion yen (2.1 billion US dollars) for the October-December quarter. Unconfirmed reports are predicting that this will mean a six percent decrease in Sony’s international workforce, which in real numbers means that 10,000 people face losing their jobs.

In today’s economic reality stories like this are neither shocking nor surprising. We have become desensitised to the everyday losses of businesses. However it is not just businesses that are facing tough times. A study released by Grant Thornton highlighted the plight of the not-for-profit sector.

It has emerged that one in ten not-for-profit organisations will cease to operate in the coming times due to an inability to plan for the next six months. Over 80 percent said they were unable to plan beyond two years because they were unsure if they would have enough money to survive that long.

Of the nearly 1000 organisations surveyed it emerged that government contributions account for approximately 60 percent of their funding and due to cut backs their future is now questionable. Other contributing factors to their uncertainty were increasing challenges in financing organisations from non-governmental sources and continuing struggles with corporate governance.

In an interview with the Irish Independent, Turlough Mullen, partner at Grant Thornton, said the not-for-profit sector has never been in such a “perilous state”. Mr Mullen added that, "as the crisis continues to deepen, we see that no sector is unaffected. The reality is that, in spite of the fact so many of these organisations do excellent work, we will see consolidation and rationalisation in the not-for-profit sector, just as we have seen in many areas of business".

So what does the future hold for these organisations? With so much good work being done can we live without them? The answer is no! The not-for-profit sector is a sector that if it diminishes many will suffer. The vulnerable will suffer. These organisations will have to find new means of survival. Seven out of 10 charities have had to create new forms of fundraising in the past two years as Government spending was slashed, but is enough being done to save this sector?