Uber sexism

An Uber board member has resigned after cracking a sexist joke during a company-wide meeting held to address sexism at the company.

David Bonderman interrupted Arianna Huffington, a prominent female entrepreneur and Uber director who was speaking during the meeting, to joke about women talking too much.

Six minutes into the meeting, and while announcing a new female board member, Wan Long Martello, Huffington said: “There’s a lot of data that shows when there’s one woman on the board, it’s much more likely that there will be a second woman on the board.”

Bonderman interrupted “Actually what it shows is it’s much more likely to be more talking.”

There was a gasp in the room and Huffington responded: “Oh. Come on, David.”

His comments were seen as especially inappropriate because the company-wide meeting had been held to address a major investigation into allegations of sexual harassment at Uber.

The investigation had been prompted by allegations from former employee Susan Fowler that she had been sexually harassed by a superior and that Uber’s HR department had refused to take action. Other allegations have since emerged.