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Facebook Is Letting Job Advertisers Target Only Men

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251–260 of 407 posts

Re: Facebook Is Letting Job Advertisers Target Only Men

#251
post #7

I'm a bit mixed about this; it is clearly discriminatory to publish a job ad that says "women need not apply", but it doesn't feel inherently discriminatory to advertise a job in, say, "Men's Health" but not "Cosmopolitan" magazine. Or to advertise on a particular television channel or program (whose viewers may not match the population at large). That's just how advertising works. Is that crazy? Would this be differ…

Anyone can buy Cosmopolitan and read ads, but no one can pretend for being someone other on fb/etc. If zuck and alphabet provided options to tune your profile card and live the other live for a while, an argument would be over and ads would not suffer. Default settings rule the world anyway. People could also escape few echo chambers as a side effect.

Re: Facebook Is Letting Job Advertisers Target Only Men

#252
post #225
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disparate_impact One thing you might be interested in reading about is Disparate Impact. Discrimination cases can be proven by showing that a practice has a disproportionately adverse impact on members of a protected class, even in the absence of intentional discrimination. The Supreme Court noted in Griggs v. Duke Power Co that the Civil Rights Act bans "not only overt discrimination bu…

> However, I can't get Facebook ads targeted to a different gender. Actually you can by lying to Facebook. I have been doing this for a long time and the bullshit ads I get are kind of amusing.

Provided that fb is a social network, lying to it must be lying to your environment?

Re: Facebook Is Letting Job Advertisers Target Only Men

#253
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Duolingo has a policy of only recruiting from schools that have an above-average percent of women in their CS program. How do you feel about that?

So they are more interested in being politically correct than in recruiting the best talent available? My respect for them just went down. This is not a way to fight gender discrimination, but rather to perpetuate it.

Yup, even if you are a women, you have to pay for the sins of your schools historical ‘discrimination’

Re: Facebook Is Letting Job Advertisers Target Only Men

#256
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they are more interested in being politically correct than in recruiting the best talent available? My respect for them just went down. This is not a way to fight gender discrimination, but rather to perpetuate it.

Yup, even if you are a women, you have to pay for the sins of your schools historical ‘discrimination’

It's more like: you're in a certain group, you get hired, and you know that the company that hired you has this policy of prioritizing hiring from your group. You spend your days in that company wondering whether you got are there because you're good at what you do, or merely because you are member of the prioritized group. I wouldn't want to be in such position.

Re: Facebook Is Letting Job Advertisers Target Only Men

#257
post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's not really how digital advertising targeting works though. In fact, they go to great lengths to make sure you illegally exclude by a class Facebook absolutely has an option to show your advert to a specific gender, though > Gender. Target ads to women, men or people of all genders. https://www.facebook.com/business/help/717368264947302?helpr... So what's happening after that point to stop you from restrictin…

I'm trying to explain that gender targeting is imprecise. When I say the hit rate of ads targeting women is 50%, I mean that of the number of people who see ads that were targeted at women, only 50% of them were women. Targeting men works a little bit more consistently, by usually about 10%, but I don't know why. That's industry-wide. I don't know if Facebook does better or not, but I have no reason to think so. Even…

50% of viewers were women on ads targeted to women? How much better than chance is that when you take into account there are more men than women on facebook? It seems low given how well they can guess less tangible things like sexual orientation...

Re: Facebook Is Letting Job Advertisers Target Only Men

#258
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the problem is with the employer, not the platform No, the platform gives the tools to specifically filter by sex. Facebook is enabling sexual discrimination. > every local custom euphemism You mean the law, the very thing that will get your in legal troubles if you break it. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to discriminate by sex when it comes to employment in US, and Facebook is an american company.

> No, the platform gives the tools to specifically filter by sex. Facebook is enabling sexual discrimination. Like any ad seller, Facebook offers displaying ads based on demographics. This is a basic requirement for many advertisers, because a lot of products happen to be bought exclusively by one gender. You have a right to buy tampons, you don't have a right to be displayed advertisements for tampons. Even if there…

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Re: Facebook Is Letting Job Advertisers Target Only Men

#259

I bet no one would blink an eye if Facebook allowed targeting jobs to only women. People really need to get over themselves, men and women inherently have different strengths, and so there are just some things that only men should do.

"should"? Men and women have different strengths on average , not on an individual level, so your conclusion that some things should be done by men only is unsound.

To be frank, if I walk into a men's bathroom and there is a woman in there cleaning I am going to be pissed off and feel like my privacy and decency has been violated. So yes, as a quick example I feel very justified in saying that men's bathrooms should ONLY be cleaned by men. There are lots of examples like this but I am too busy to outline each one. Women should NOT be encouraged to think that they are equal to men, they are not and this only breeds conflict and disappointment. I do not have the faculties to be the world's top mathematician, anyone trying to encourage me to achieve this position is setting me up for massive amounts of disappointment and frustration, no one should try to prevent me attempting IF I should want to try, same thing with women, no women should ever be expected or encouraged to excel in the work place, women should be encouraged to be happy at home, there should just never be any laws preventing women from attempting anything they wish.

Re: Facebook Is Letting Job Advertisers Target Only Men

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know about the US but there are rules in regards to job postings in the UK and likely the EU at large that would make that a violation of anti-discrimination laws.

I'm pretty sure I've seen adverts asking for women (but not the contrary); can you cite the legislation (at UK level is fine). rant incoming: Indeed in my small niche the almost exclusively female company owners, who always address group messages to "ladies", when enquiring about taking on employees always say "I'm thinking of taking on a girl, where should I advertise" or similar. Weekend help is "a Saturday girl".…

I can't speak for the UK but in Belgium it's certainly illegal to discriminate based on gender, age, race, ....

There was even a case recently where a man won a lawsuit because he was excluded by a clothing store that was searching for a female employee for doing an inventory job.

"Brussels, 23 August 2018 - The legal action taken by the Institute for Equality of Women and Men reminds employers that sex is not a criterion for refusing an application. The Leuven Labor Court has sentenced a clothing store to discrimination based on sex. He refused a man's candidacy because he wanted to hire a woman."

https://presscenter.org/nl/pressrelease/20180822/een-sollici... (dutch) https://presscenter.org/nl/pressrelease/20180822/een-sollici... (french)

That being said I also seen adverts asking for women but technically it's against the law and even with all those laws discriminations happen more often than not.

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