Image via CrunchBase
While there is no snowballing social media campaign to boycott the Masters golf tournament because of the lack of a woman member at Augusta National, there is a fledgling Change.org petition and the usual back-and-forth on Twitter. Still, "Where's the Outrage?," a colleague wonders.
You can find it in the drumbeat of media stories on the eve of the tournament. In its coverage, CNN.com wrote about "Augusta National: a Powerful Holdout Among Men-Only Clubs." The New York Times ran a riveting play-by-play of the "touchy" Wednesday press conference of the club chairman, Billy Payne, "Touchy Day at Augusta National Men's Club."
At issue, of course, is the fact that IBM sponsors the Masters and its new chief executive, Virginia Rometty, has not been (publicly) invited to don a green jacket and join the exclusive (read: secretive) club. ABC News pointed out that her predecessor at IBM, "Sam Palmisano is a member of the club, along with the CEOs of the tournament's two other major sponsors, Exxon Mobil and AT&T." Seems as the club's membership ranks are not so secret.
Meanwhile, back in corporate America, there is a petition afoot over a different matter: the lack of a woman on the Facebook board.
Ultraviolet, which describes itself as a group fighting to expand women's rights and combat sexism, is demanding in a new petition that Facebook appoint at least one woman to its board before the company goes public.
The timing of Facebook's initial public offering is not clear, but it is thought to be in May, according to Best Stock Watch, which said the date depends upon regulators.
CrunchBase.com has a detailed profile of who's who on Facebook here.
Nita Chaudhary, co-founder of Ultraviolet, said in a letter announcing its "Face It" campaign, sent to 300,000 members on Thursday:
"The fact that a company as large as Facebook with a massive global reach does not have a single woman on their board is nothing short of shameful. Facebook owes it success and makes a ton of money off of its women users. Women are responsible for nearly two-thirds of the sharing that happens on the site. In addition, women account for more than 70 percent daily fan activity on the site, which is a huge source of revenue for the company. Facebook has a problem and they need to solve it before they go public. Mark Zuckerberg should live up to his company's mission statement and appoint at least one woman to the board today."
To be sure, Facebook is not the only board devoid of women. Catalyst.org, which tracks women's leadership, found in 2011 that women held only 16.1 percent of board seats, compared with 15.7 percent in 2010.
Ultraviolet is asking people to sign a petition with the hopes of big media push next week, according to its letter: http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/facebook/
Here is more from the Ultraviolet letter:
"Not having a single woman on Facebook's board makes no sense.
Here's why: Companies with women on the board make more money. Studies have shown that there is a correlation between boards with female representation and increased returns on sales, investments and equity. And companies with women on the board function better. Studies have also indicated that women improve the ways that boards function and make decisions.
Women are also widely seen as the future of the tech industry. Take Pinterest as an example, they've only been around for a year and are already one of the ten largest social network services. They credit their meteoric growth to their 97% female users.
With a white, male board, Facebook is behind the curve."
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