Facebook features more than 800 million users, most of which are female, but it seems it’s female dominated network isn’t represented in its board of directors. The board is comprised of seven white men. Face to face, Facebook is dwarfed by other companies similar, who all have at least one female board member; LinkedIn and Google are among these companies.
Anne Mulcahy is a former chairperson and chief executive officer of Xerox corp. and a director at Johnson & Johnson, Target, and Washington Post Co. According to one source, she had this to say about the situation:
“We’re long past having to defend or explain why women should be on boards, given all the data that shows how companies with female as well as male directors perform better. It’s unfortunate when companies with a large percentage of women constituents don’t reflect that in their boardrooms.”
She also said:
“As Facebook and other young companies mature, they need to break out of this pattern and have more diverse representation. Women also need to be better represented in the private equity industry.”
A Fortune 500 survey discovered that those companies with 3 or more female members on their board outperformed those with fewer from 2005 to 2009, scraping in a 43 percent better ROE. Since Facebook’s 5 billion dollar IPO, the contents of its board strategy is faulted. Susan Stautberg, who is the the co-founder of NYBWCD or New York-Based Women Corporate Directors said this about female board members:
“It doesn’t make sense for a company that claims to be so forward looking to not have any women directors. If they just have an old boy’s network in the boardroom, they won’t have access to diverse ideas and strategies.”
Facebook’s board consisting of all men is rather odd considering the company’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, is a woman who, in fact, is a supporter of gender equality; Sandberg is Facebook’s public face, she’s also the best paid senior exec. raking in 30.9 million dollars last year.
In light of this news, how do you feel about Facebook’s lack of female presence on their board? Does it anger you? Are you indifferent? Let us know exactly how you feel in the comments section.
