Facebook to double women workforce globally in the next five years

Facebook aims to double the strength of women workers globally in the next five years, along with doubling black and Hispanic employees in the US.

In its 2019 diversity report, Facebook said it has people of diverse backgrounds and experiences, more people of colour, more women in both technical and business roles, and more under-represented people in leadership.

"Most notably, we've achieved a higher representation of women in leadership by focusing on hiring and growing female leaders within the company. Over the last several years, the majority of new female leaders were internally promoted," Maxine Williams, Global Chief Diversity Officer at Facebook said in a statement on Tuesday.

Since 2014, Facebook has increased the number of Black women at Facebook by 25 times and the number of Black men by 10 times.

Facebook said it is the best place to work for the LGBTQ+ community.

"We're proud to have earned 100 per cent on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) 2019 Corporate Equality Index (CEI). This is the fifth year in a row that we have received the best score," said the company.

Like other tech companies, the social networking giant has also faced criticism for its lack of diversity.

Facebook said it invested $4.2 million in the "Align Programme" which increases the number of women and underrepresented people pursuing careers in computer science by providing students who did not study computer science with the opportunity to earn a master's degree in computer science.