Etsy has crafted an identity for itself as an artisanal alternative to mainstream marketplaces. It's also going against the norm in other ways, as its latest diversity report shows.
Today the company said that women now make up 54 percent of its workforce, up from 51 percent in 2014. What's more, half of the leadership and management positions at Etsy belong to women, an impressive achievement, at least in the context of the tech industry's dreary diversity record.
In keeping with its pledge to buck conventions, Etsy also says it will no longer refer to gender in a binary way, reflecting its belief that “gender lies on a spectrum.” In its latest report, it classifies its employees as those who “identify as women,” “identify as men,” and identify as “other awesome gender identities.” The company says employees are given the opportunity to voluntarily self-report their gender from among more than 60 options.
For those tracking the progress of diversity in tech (or, in most cases, the lack of progress), Etsy's news is encouraging. Women typically comprise about 30 percent of the workforce at tech companies compared to 47 percent of the overall US workforce.
Still, even Etsy mirrors the rest of the industry in the composition of its engineering staff, which is only 20.5 percent women. The company also shares the tech industry's general lack of racial diversity. Etsy is 78.6 percent white and comes in below industry average for black, Latino, and Asian employees.
“Looking at our updated numbers, we’ve noticed that while our concerted focus on gender equity yielded clear, positive results, the same was not true for our progress in advancing racial and ethnic diversity,” says Juliet Gorman, director of culture and engagement at Etsy.
Not that the company doesn't appear to be trying. It says it’s investing in relationships with organizations focused on improving diversity in tech, increasing its presence on campuses of historically black colleges, and expanding on other recruitment efforts. Etsy has taken some positive steps toward gender parity. But intersectionality is important, too.
