Uber’s sexual harassment problem is ‘ substantial’
Women’s tech group pushes back against dismissals of concern
Uber board member Arianna Huffington says sexual harassment is not a systemic problem at the ride- hailing company.
Uber human resources chief Liane Hornsey told USA TODAY the treatment of women is no worse at Uber than anywhere else. But Elizabeth Ames, senior vice president of programs, marketing and alliances at the Anita Borg Institute, which advocates for women in tech, disagrees. That Uber fired 20 employees after more than 200 claims of sexual harassment, bullying and other workplace violations shows there is a “substantial” problem, she says.
Uber has been under scrutiny since a February blog post from former software engineer Susan Fowler detailed the sexual harassment and discrimination she and others experienced at the company. The firings last week came as a result of an investigation by law firm Perkins Coie into Fowler’s account of pervasive sexism at the ride- hailing company. The results of a second investigation conducted by former U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder are due this week.
Earlier this month, Uber said it had fired an executive who ran its Asia Pacific operations after Recode reported he went to India in 2014 after a woman was raped by her Uber driver to obtain her medical records, which were then reviewed by Uber executives including CEO Travis Kalanick.
It’s just the latest crisis to raise serious questions about the corporate culture at Uber and Kalanick’s leadership.
Ames spoke with USA TODAY about Uber’s response to these crises. Last month the Anita Borg Institute severed ties with Uber as a corporate partner “due to the severity of the allegations.”
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q What is your reaction to comments in recent days that Uber is no worse than any other company in how it treats women and that there is no systemic problem with sexual harassment?
A: I would disagree. We look at women’s participation in Uber’s technical workforce, and it is very low. It’s 15%, substantially lower than other companies. And they don’t seem to have had any particular focus on improving it. They had never made their numbers public; I don’t think they even made them available internally until all of this blew up.
I don’t think it’s OK to say, well, we’re no worse than anyone else, and everyone else sucks, so it’s OK to be bad.
I think that we are splitting hairs when we say, is this systemic or not — 215 submissions of issues and 115 found to have at least some validity to follow up, I think is substantial.
Now, on the flip side, I would say the fact they actually took action against some of these and that there were consequences for people, that does send a message, and that’s helpful.
Now one of the other things that I see going on here that I’m concerned about is that we now have a situation where everybody within Uber who is actually speaking on these issues are women and minorities.
Where are the majority? And how come they are not speaking on these issues? Because now it’s getting hung on people who are experiencing bias to fix the problem. I don’t think that that’s ac- tually where the responsibility lies.
Q Where does the responsibility lie?
A: With the CEO and with the board.
Q What should they do?
A: I’d like to hear what they think they should do and what their commitment is. We do have examples of tech companies whose CEOs have made public commitments and followed through on them. Marc Benioff at Salesforce and Brian Krzanich at Intel — they made public commitments, and they put their money where their mouth is, and they have done a lot of great work. I am not saying they are perfect. ... But when you have a commitment at the leadership level, it makes a big difference.
Q What is your reaction to the steps Uber has taken, such as listening tours? Hornsey said she didn’t hear from employees that sexual harassment is something they care about.
A: Nobody is going to bring up sexual harassment in a public group of employees giving feedback to management.
That said, there is absolutely a place for having a variety of ways that you get feedback from employees. And it’s often helpful to listen in small groups, etc.
But I think you have to be realistic about the type of things people are going to bring up in those groups. And you know the employee base right now is dominated by men. Men are not going to be bring up sexual harassment as an issue for them.