Women Who Blow the Whistle

“Since 2018, 50% of the whistleblowers we support are women and 95% of them are under 40 years old. I think it is probably not the profile that people imagine of a whistleblower.” - Delphine Halgand-Mishra

During yesterday’s panel discussion on #Whistleblowing Women hosted by the Real Facebook Oversight Board, The Signals Network’s Executive Director, Delphine Halgand Mishra, made reference to the fact that - of the whistleblowers that our organization directly supports -? approximately half are women and nearly all are under the age of 40.

The idea that approximately half of all whistleblowers are women is somewhat surprising and unexpected in an industry where women represent only 27% of STEM workers. Look deeper at #BigTech’s hiring and HR practices and it may not be so surprising that so many women are speaking out. According to Built In, which tracks hiring trends:?

• 48% of women in STEM jobs report discrimination in the recruitment and hiring process.
• Black and Hispanic women who majored in computer science or engineering, are less likely to be hired into a tech role than their white counterparts.
• 39% of women view gender bias as a primary reason for not being offered a promotion.
• 66% of women report that there is no clear path forward for them in their career at their current companies.

Tech hiring and HR practices have been the focus of a number of women tech whistleblowers, including Ifeoma Ozoma at Pinterest and Chelsey Glasson at Google. But women in tech also are highlighting practices that hurt the public. Revelations brought to light from Facebook whistleblowers, Frances Haugen and Sophie Zhang, focus on how Facebook has allowed misinformation to spread with little internal oversight, the scope of which has huge human rights implications worldwide. Timnit Gebru also joins the ranks having raised the flag on Google’s AI software and was forced out as a result.

...So why are there so many women stepping forward to speak out in the public interest? Does this shift in gender balance reflect a shift in power where more women feel like they can speak out, in spite of the many obstacles women still face in the tech workforce? How do we reach out to those who don’t yet have a voice? Is there more we can do to support tech workers - of all genders - who seek institutional change for the public interest, especially those who have experienced discrimination or have been marginalized??

We think so.?

In collaboration with Pinterest whistleblower Ifeoma Ozoma and other partners, we helped produce the first of its kind Tech Worker Handbook and are now working hard to roll out our broader Tech Accountability Project to help empower tech workers in the US, Europe and beyond.?