UltraViolet, a gender quality nonprofit that for months called for Facebook to appoint a woman member to its corporate board of directors, has given muted applause to the appointment of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to the company’s board on Monday.
Nita Chaudhary, co-founder of Ultraviolet, released the statement below on the news that Facebook has appointed Sheryl Sandberg to it’s board.
“This is an important step in the right direction and a victory for the more than 53,000 Ultraviolet members who called on Facebook to make this move months ago. The fact of the matter is our months long campaign should have never been necessary. Putting women on the boards of major corporations should be a no brainer and standard business practice. Sadly it is not. We hope this is a first step for Facebook and in the coming months more women will be added to their board. In addition, we hope that other companies with all male boards, particularly those in the tech sector, will follow Facebook’s lead. We will continue to campaign to ensure that these companies do the right thing.”
UltraViolet’s other co-founder, Shuanna Thomas, told TPM in a telephone interview that the group had been made aware prior to Sandberg’s appointment, through some of its partners, that Facebook was exploring how to add diversity to its board.
