Facebook accused of skewing women in job offers

The New York Times contacted three of the employers to inquire about the allegations. Two of them, Renewal by Andersen, which sells and installs windows and doors, and Defenders, which sells and installs home security systems, declined to comment. Nebraska Furniture Mart did not answer.

In principle, companies could have simultaneously targeted similar ads for women, but they do not seem to have done so, according to the lawyers involved. According to Peter Romer-Friedman, attorney at Outten & Golden, one of the lawyers, some have conceded that they have only advertised to men and some have promised not to do so.

Some employers, responding to similar allegations in the past, have argued that their Facebook ads are just one part of a larger recruitment campaign that uses different media to reach different audiences, including platform ads. such as LinkedIn or and on other websites or on TV.

LinkedIn and Google also allow advertisers to exclude men and women from receiving ads. Both companies said in statements that advertisements illegally discriminating members of a protected class violated their policies and were deleted once found. LinkedIn stated that each ad was subject to a manual or algorithmic review process.

In practice, Facebook, with its more than two billion active users a month, can be the most important tool for reaching certain types of workers, such as hourly workers, who often do not use it no other platforms like LinkedIn.

Bobbi Spees, a 35-year-old mother of three from Smethport, Pennsylvania, one of the accusers, said she was a part-time advisor to students in special education and that she was a part-time student. she was looking for a better paying job. .

Spees spent several years in her twenties working in a container factory where, she says, the pay was roughly two to three times higher than she currently earns and her health coverage was irreproachable. She said that she would like to find a similar job and that she had used Facebook actively for her research, but that she had trouble finding leads.