Uber is inching toward a more diverse staff

By Lydia Dishman

April 24, 2018

In the little over a year since ex-Uber engineer Susan Fowler penned a blog post that exposed the company’s sexist and discriminatory culture (and prompted a rash of firings), the ride-hailing giant seems to have made incremental progress to diversify its staff.

Today, Uber released its diversity and inclusion report, detailing the strides it’s made to include more underrepresented minorities in its ranks and on its executive team. So far, those strides seem to have made only minor differences–and one could ask how much change is possible in a single year.

Uber is inching toward a more diverse staff | DeviceDaily.com

[Screenshot: Uber]

Between March 2017 and March 2018, the number of women on staff globally increased from 36.1% to 38%. In tech roles, women are still underrepresented: 15.4% last year inching up to only 17.9% this year. The number of women in leadership fell from 22% to 20.9%.

In the U.S. (the only country where it’s counted), Uber’s race and ethnic breakdown shows that there are fewer whites on staff (49.8% down to 48%). Yet while the number of African-Americans fell a fraction of a percent, the Hispanic workforce grew a bit, from 5.6% to 6.1%. You can see the full breakdown here.

New Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told CNN in an interview that he wasn’t planning to set numerical goals for diversity for the coming year, believing it is “too soon.” “Goals are easy, actions are hard … Judge me based on what I do, not by what I say,” he said. You can bet a lot of people are watching, and will be happy to pass judgment.

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