Snapchat's first diversity report shows a lack of representation
While clear disparities remain, the company has made some progress in diversifying its workforce.
- She received the Renau Writing Scholarship in 2016 from the University of Louisville's communication department.
Snapchat's diversity report came out on Wednesday.
All eyes were on big tech Wednesday as several tech CEOs testified before a House antitrust subcommittee. While Apple , Amazon
, Google and Facebook defended their business practices, social media site Snapchat released its first-ever diversity report within its CitizenSnap report, which details the company's efforts around environmentalism and inclusion.The report shows that while clear disparities remain, the app that launched back in 2011 has made some progress in diversifying its workforce.
Parent company Snap's workforce is comprised of 4.1% Black and 6.8% Hispanic people, the report found. Snap reports that those numbers increased in 2019 by 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively.
The report shows that women make up 16% of Snap's tech teams, and 7% of its tech teams' leadership. The number of women in Snap's global workforce increased 0.9% from 2018 to 2019, according to the report. The company says it has added and retained more women since.
"We are determined to do what it takes to improve these numbers, because behind the numbers are real people," the report said. The company also outlined goals to double the number of women in its workforce by 2023 and the number of underrepresented US racial and ethnic minorities in its ranks by 2025.
Snapchat made its employees aware that the diversity report would be released this week and the timing was deliberate, a Snapchat spokesperson told CNET on Wednesday. The choice was originally made to avoid the hearing day, which wound up being rescheduled. Thinking it unfair to the team to push back the report, Snapchat went forward with the release of the diversity report as planned, the spokesperson said.
In June, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel faced criticism for not wanting to release diversity numbers for the company.
