On Wednesday, Cindy Gallop shared a photo of a poster advertising a gender diversity panel at PayPal on her Facebook with the caption, “Just going to leave this here.”
Since then, the MakeLoveNotPorn founder’s photo has been shared by nearly 600 people, and of the 35 comments on the post, most are some iteration of “This is a joke, right?”
What makes this particular poster so noteworthy is not so much what is on it, but what is not: women. For a panel on gender diversity, the lineup—which consists of five men—is decidedly not gender diverse.
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Nolwenn Godard, the President of Unity, PayPal’s women’s group, says the poster is a misunderstanding, due in part to it the second half of the title of the panel—“Gender Equality and Inclusion in the Workplace: a Conversation with our Male Allies”—having been left off.
“For this panel our intent is to bring together our male allies to work with us on gender inclusion. Unfortunately the full title and the intention of the panel did not make it on to the initial posters that have been the subject of commentary. We’ve since clarified the language to address the misunderstanding,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
In response to a request for comment, PayPal directed Coins2Day to a blog post on gender diversity written by LaFawn Bailey, the company’s global head of culture and inclusion. In the post, Bailey addresses the panel, noting that it is “part of a series on promoting gender equality in the workplace” and that it was meant to be a way for male executives to “share their perspective on the role men play in achieving equality.”
Godard will now be stepping in to moderate the discussion, Bailey wrote, “in light of the feedback [the company has] received.”
Currently, PayPal’s (PYPL) 18-person executive team has three women. Stats about its workforce since its split from eBay (EBAY) are not yet available.
