Women show modest growth at Facebook

San Francisco, Aug 3 (IANS) Globally, the number of women working at Facebook has risen to 35 per cent, up from 33 in 2016 while their number in the technical department has risen by two per cent in the past year to 19 per cent, the company said.

According to a Facebook blog post on Wednesday, women now make up 27 per cent of all new graduate hires in engineering and 21 per cent of all new technical hires at Facebook.

"We're committed to building a more diverse, inclusive Facebook -- and will remain committed. Much like our approach to launching new products on our platform, we are willing to experiment and listen to feedback. We want to highlight three programs in particular," Maxine Williams, Global Director of Diversity at Facebook said.

In the senior leadership roles, women make up 28 per cent of the total workforce that currently stands at more than 20,000.

In the US, Facebook has increased the representation of Hispanics from four per cent to five per cent, and Black people from two per cent to three per cent.

However, the figures continue to show the minorities forming small percentage of the company's global workforce.

"It's complicated. This is a reflection of a lot of societal issues that are not specific to tech," a report in CNBC quoted Williams as saying.

According to Williams, only women earn technical degrees and much lesser minorities know about the potential to earn these degrees and work at a company like Facebook.

"There's the question of exposure of the tech industry to people who are traditionally underrepresented -- the Bay Area is between three per cent and six per cent black," she added.

The company claims it is investing to accelerate the pace of change, from recruiting to inclusion and retention.

"The more attention we bring to this, the more investment, and the more opportunities we provide, the better we'll get as a country at increasing these numbers," added Williams.