Reddit Is Hemorrhaging Female Employees
In the last month, at least four female senior Reddit employees have left the company, as the site’s interim CEO continues to insist that there’s “no gender discrimination problem.” The latest employee to exit—Jessica Moreno, Reddit’s now-former Head of Community—quit Monday, purportedly because she intends to “spend more time with her family” and not because who in god’s name would want that job at this point.
Still, Moreno, who started working at the company in 2011, said in a statement Tuesday that her resignation “has to do with my own life outside of work and nothing internal at reddit. It has nothing to do with the policy changes or being a woman.” Via Recode:
I have enjoyed my time at Reddit but after four years I feel that it’s time for me to move on. While I am working with Steve on a transition plan, I am looking forward to taking time off to spend with my family. It was a difficult decision to make right now as Reddit is taking difficult steps in a much needed positive direction. I’m excited to see the progress being made and glad I could be a part of it.
But it is hard to ignore the fact that four high-profile female employees have departed the site in the last month—AMA moderator Victoria Taylor, who was fired; CEO Ellen Pao, who was forced out; and chief engineer Bethanye Blount, who quit citing a loss of confidence in the company.
And despite claims that Reddit is looking to promote women, the company has been filling its new, lady-shaped holes with men: former CEO Steve Huffman was tapped to replace Pao and Blount has since been replaced by former team leader George Pang.
It’s still unclear who will replace Moreno; she says she’s working out a transition plan with Huffman. But as the company continues to hemorrhage female employees, it’s harder and harder to believe its claim as a hospitable place for women, even as they deny, officially, that their departures are non-gender-related.
When Blount quit earlier this month, she said Pao had been placed on a glass cliff and set up to fail. At this point, it’s worth asking who at the company wasn’t.
