Women are more active
on Twitter than men, according to a fascinating Quick Sprout social media study
reported on by Adweek, but that hasn’t stopped the tech giant from allegedly fostering an environment
of gender inequality in the workplace. Earlier this week, former Twitter
software engineer Tina Huang filed a class action lawsuit against the company,
claiming their promotion policies unfairly favor men, Reuters reports.
Huang cites a “black
box” system of promotion, where employees are made aware of potential open
positions via a “shoulder tap” system reminiscent of fraternity
rush week. In lieu of formal job postings that would allow all interested to
apply, predominantly male committees of senior management meet to determine all
employee progression up what is known internally as the “technical ladder,”
according to Mashable,
who obtained text from the lawsuit detailing “the 10 ways Twitter’s internal
promotion system gets it wrong.”
On this list, alongside
“failing to follow a uniform job posting procedure” and “failing and refusing
to promote women on the same basis as men” is the particularly disheartening
item that is sure to resonate with women everywhere who have come up against
heady resistance upon standing up for themselves: “Retaliating against women
employees who complain of unequal treatment.”
While a Twitter
spokesman told Mashable that “Ms. Huang resigned voluntarily,” the brave former
software engineer says the companies secretive, subjective policies “are
tainted with conscious of unconscious prejudices and gender-based stereotypes,
which explains why so few women employees at Twitter advance to senior and
leadership positions.”
A decade ago, Twitter
redefined how we communicate on the Internet with the launch of its first 140-character
message. Today, perhaps it’s time they take a similarly revolutionary look at
how they communicate internally.
And in the meantime,
ladies: We have some handy tips to help you take on infuriatingly tricky issues like wage discrepancies
in your day-to-day life.