To those familiar with the tech industry, it is perhaps not surprising that women face additional systemic social and financial challenges. In the startup world the numbers speak for themselves: on average women get $33 million less in capital than men for their ventures and 90% of all startups that raised series A funding don’t have a female founder. However, we can perceive a change in this situation; there are companies in multiple sectors which are supporting women in their industries and female business leaders, determined to propel women into success by helping to address the unique challenges they face.
Taboola is proud to be one of those companies. In fact, one of their core company principles is that “diversity makes us stronger”. According to the company’s leadership, Taboola is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce by recruiting, promoting, and rewarding people based solely on their contributions without discrimination against gender identity, race, disability, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, or marital status. In practical terms, Taboola aims to ensure 45% of all promotions and new hires, including key leadership roles, will be women and/or racially diverse by 2025. Indeed, in May 2021, Taboola added two new board members to its board of directors, technology and media industry veterans Deirdre Bigley and Lynda Clarizio. The company has also created TaboolHER, the official Taboola Women’s Collective.
In addition to their internal corporate practices, in early 2021, Taboola launched a new global initiative, called #RecommendHER. They have donated $500K in free advertising on Taboola to women-owned businesses, in order to bring them back to a place of growth, particularly those most affected by COVID-19, like Travel, Retail and Education. Participants in #RecommendHER received access to Taboola’s vast network which reaches 500 million daily active users, in a brand-safe environment.
Finally, in June 2021, Taboola announced it has been selected by SHE Media, a digital media company created by and for women with 80 million unique visitors per month, as its exclusive content recommendations provider. Under the agreement, SHE Media will leverage Taboola Feed and Taboola News into its family of websites.
Taboola is not alone in its efforts. Nestle is another company looking forward to building a more diverse workplace, through their Gender Acceleration Plan. Launched in 2019, the plan aims to increase the proportion of women in our top 200 senior executive positions to 30% by 2022. In addition, externally, they are working to change the economic outlook for women along their supply chain, including through initiatives that help women in agricultural communities diversify their incomes. P&G has also announced several partnerships with media and advertising companies to advance gender equality in ad campaigns and support women in creative roles.
Companies are increasingly recognizing the value of female entrepreneurship, leading to tactical solutions of promoting women. There is a need and opportunity for strategic intervention in the industry and these companies have realized that and are taking the necessary steps to address this.
