“Change must be real,” Jesse Jackson said during a speech earlier this year urging Uber executives to release there diversity numbers. After increased pressure from Mr. Jackson and other coalition groups, Uber is finally relenting and releasing their numbers on workplace diversity.
The main point of pressure that may have caused this change in heart comes from Susan Fowler Rigetti. The former Uber employee released a detailed narrative about Uber’s lack luster response to her claims of sexual harassment from an Uber manager. As result of the investigation into Rigetti claims, Uber’s chief executive Travis Kalanick promised to release the company’s diversity numbers within the next few months.
According to Rigetti, Uber suffers from gender inequality. She stated that out of 150 Uber engineers, three percent are women. Kalanick however stated otherwise and indicated that, “Uber’s engineers, product managers, and scientists are women, adding that that figure is at 10 percent at Twitter, 17 percent at Facebook, and 18 percent at Google.”
With such a murky relationship and a history of diversity issues, this data release will let observers understand which side is telling the truth in the matter. Hopefully regardless of where the current situation stands, both Uber and Rigetti can move past this and into a positive direction.
