PayPal’s planned panel discussion on gender issues next Wednesday has received a substantial amount of attention in media, but not in the way PayPal intended.
The criticism has in fact focused on the peculiar reasoning behind the choice of participants, more specifically those NOT invited to take part in PayPal’s panel on gender equality.
Women.
The panel put together to discuss “gender equality and inclusion in the workplace” will be all male. A flyer shared online and highlighted by NBC News reads:
“Please join us for a discussion with our senior male leaders… about how men and women can partner to achieve a better workplace.”
Just saw this @PayPal Unity – Gender Equality & Inclusion talk on 4/27 – All male senior execs on the panel?? pic.twitter.com/LhlkehsK6B
— Gloria Bell (@gloriabell) April 21, 2016
The criticism led PayPal’s President of Unity, Nolwenn Godard, to publish a statement on Facebook explaining that the invite has been misunderstood:
This statement, however, did not impress everyone. As one Twitter user pointed out:
https://twitter.com/monteiro/status/723176634220605440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
According to The Guardian, Godard has since been asked to moderate the all-men panel, and women in the community are to be “full participants in the discussion.”
But as PayPal’s executive board is composed of 15 men and three women, many have questioned the company’s suitability to host a discussion on gender issues in the first place.
However, you may just as well look at it the other way. PayPay is obviously a company badly in need of a gender issues discussion. Social media slamming down on their misguided attempts at gender equality will hopefully serve as a wake-up call.
A fair gender discussion leading to fair gender solutions comes from a fair gender representation, and not from the imagination of senior executive males.
Featured image by Alex from Flickr. Permission to use under Creative Commons.
