A group of women with Facebookhave filed a complaint against the social networking platform and nine other companies for gender discrimination after they promoted some job advertisements only to men.
The ACLU, along with the law firm Outten & Golden LLP and the Communications Workers of America, have filed a lawsuit on behalf of three female employees with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The charge against Facebook and other companies is that they illegally discriminate on the basis of gender by targeting their job ads only to male Facebook users. Such ads prevent women from receiving the same opportunities to find work.
The job ads in question came from male-dominated fields, such as engineers, truck drivers, etc. The social network is being targeted because it uses its targeting system to control who receives these ads.
Bobbi Spees, one of the three plaintiffs in the case, said: “I’ve heard stories about when people would look at job ads and see headlines like ‘male staff wanted’ or ‘female staff wanted’. I was shocked to find that this discrimination still exists, it’s just now being presented online and not in newspapers.”
“I shouldn’t be excluded from the opportunity to hear about a job posting just because I’m a woman,” she added.
Meanwhile, the social network has stated that “there is no place for discrimination on Facebook. It is strictly prohibited by our policy.” The platform is now reviewing the complaint filed by the ACLU.
