The majority of Facebook users may be women, and they use the site, on average, more than men.
But the leadership of the world's top social networking site is
overwhelmingly male - and investors are taking notice ahead of the
company's imminent initial public stock offering.
CalSTRS, the pension fund for California teachers, the
second-largest pension fund in the country, sent a letter to Facebook
complaining about its all-white, all-male board of directors and
calling for more racial and gender diversity.
"We are disappointed that the Facebook board will not have any
women members," CalSTRS director of corporate governance Anne Sheehan
wrote in Tuesday's letter. "This is particularly glaring in view of
the fact that Facebook is going public at a time when there is clear
evidence that companies with diverse boards perform far better than
the companies with more homogenous boards."
Facebook spokespeople were unwilling to respond to the letter.
The criticism did not mention Facebook's high-profile chief
operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, whose stake in the company will
be worth a projected $1.6 billion when the company goes
public. She is a major advocate for women in business.
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She is widely seen as the most likely woman to get a seat on the
Facebook board, which currently comprises founder and chief executive
Mark Zuckerberg, Internet entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, former
Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, Washington Post
chief executive Donald Graham, Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings
and venture capitalists James Breyer and Peter Thiel.
A Pew Internet survey in 2010 found that 58 percent of Facebook
users are women, and that women spend more time than men making
status and profile updates and commenting on others' posts.
