Gender bias: PayPorte pulls anti-women job advert after Twitter “confrontation”
In a world where everyone is speaking up for gender equality, an e-commerce firm did the unthinkable.
PayPorte is looking for a new Chief Operating Officer (COO), and initially made it clear it would give male candidates preferential treatment.
The excuse seems to be that the firm already has enough female employees and bosses.
In one of several vacancy postings online, PayPorte listed the usual requirements for an ideal COO.
But the company included a spoiler when it said the candidate should be “preferably a male.” In other words: “females need not apply.”
PayPorte was apparently forced to clarify the obvious gender bias after a women rights advocate challenged the firm on social media.
“It’ll be interesting to hear why the folks at PayPorte think in this 2016 that COOs should be male,” Lola Talabi-Oni directed a tweet at the firm on Tuesday.
PayPorte would later reply her explaining it made the move to create “balance” within its workforce.
Here’s PayPorte’s reply:
The application was open to both genders and interestingly 65% of the 413 received applications are from females. We are a balanced organisation and we believe in equal opportunities for all, proven by the following facts. At our End of the Year Party in December 2015, the Overall Best Staff of the Year was a woman. 62% of the workforce at Payporte are female. This can be confirmed by paying a visit to our office. Five of the seven top management staff are females. That said, we will like to apologise if anyone felt hurt by the job ad and description. It has been taken down.
Talabi-Oni said it’s a good thing PayPorte responded on time and offered an apology, but she’s not buying the answer.
She tweeted afterwards:
Really good that PayPorte responded quickly (even if it’s personally unsatisfactory), they clarified and acted. That’s great!
But PayPorte did not state whether or not it will go ahead to appoint a male COO even if any female candidate proves she’s better.
“I’ve read their statement and all I can say is they feel it’s not smart to put the company in the hands of too many women,” a women right activist told NewsroomNG on Tuesday.
She doesn’t want to be named because “it could lead to something else.”
“Why can’t a woman sit on top of the pyramid? Why should I send my little girl to school if she can’t be boss at wherever?”.
Thanks for this. I got a glimpse of the story on Twitter, but couldn’t find the complete story.
I think Mrs (or Miss) Talabi-Oni should accept the explanation for what it is. There is absolutely nothing wrong in trying to balance out the gender equation in the office. If the reverse had been the case, we will already be calling for people’s heads amidst shouts of sexism and misogyny.
Your women’s right activist seems to insinuate that she can tell exactly what the organization is thinking by stating “I’ve read their statement and all I can say is they feel it’s not smart to put the company in the hands of too many women,”
People seem to forget that this thing is called gender EQUALITY. It really makes no sense if we’re marginalizing one group to create a false sense of equality.
Some of these claims sound a lot like childish rants.
Thanks for this. I got a glimpse of the story on Twitter, but couldn’t find the complete story.
I think Mrs (or Miss) Talabi-Oni should accept the explanation for what it is. There is absolutely nothing wrong in trying to balance out the gender equation in the office. If the reverse had been the case, we will already be calling for people’s heads amidst shouts of sexism and misogyny.
Your women’s right activist seems to insinuate that she can tell exactly what the organization is thinking by stating “I’ve read their statement and all I can say is they feel it’s not smart to put the company in the hands of too many women,”
People seem to forget that this thing is called gender EQUALITY. It really makes no sense if we’re marginalizing one group to create a false sense of equality.
Some of these claims sound a lot like childish rants.
Thanks for this. I got a glimpse of the story on Twitter, but couldn’t find the complete story.
I think Mrs (or Miss) Talabi-Oni should accept the explanation for what it is. There is absolutely nothing wrong in trying to balance out the gender equation in the office. If the reverse had been the case, we will already be calling for people’s heads amidst shouts of sexism and misogyny.
Your women’s right activist seems to insinuate that she can tell exactly what the organization is thinking by stating “I’ve read their statement and all I can say is they feel it’s not smart to put the company in the hands of too many women,”
People seem to forget that this thing is called gender EQUALITY. It really makes no sense if we’re marginalizing one group to create a false sense of equality.
Some of these claims sound a lot like childish rants.