Uber board member joked women talk too much — during meeting on sexism

An Uber board member joked — during a company meeting on how to fix sexism in the workplace — that women talk too much, according to leaked audio obtained by Yahoo Finance.

The all-hands meeting on Tuesday came after the embattled ride-hailing firm adopted a slew of recommendations following an ongoing investigation into allegations of rampant sexual harassment and discrimination at the company.

During the meeting, board member Arianna 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.”

Fellow board member David Bonderman, founder of TPG Capital, interjected, “Actually, what it shows is it’s much likely to be more talking,” according to Yahoo.

{mosads}

New York Times’ technology reporter Mike Isaac said Bonderman apologized in an email to all employees, saying, “I want to apologize to my fellow board member for a disrespectful comment that was directed at her during today’s discussion. It was inappropriate. I also want to apologize to all the Uber employees who were offended by the remark. I deeply regret it.” ”

from a source, this is Bonderman’s apology, fwded from Liane Hornsey to all employees. pic.twitter.com/a3YhbvaRqs

— ಠ_ಠ (@MikeIsaac) June 13, 2017

Uber has been struggling to deal with allegations of widespread sexual harassment and a number of other controversies and missteps that have dogged the company in recent months.

On Tuesday, Uber released a list of recommendations from former Attorney General Eric Holder and Tammy Albarrán, an attorney, who were called in to investigate the workplace culture after the harassment allegations became public.

The board voted unanimously on Sunday to adopt all of the report’s recommendations to improve the workplace environment, including enhancing human resources and making it easier for victims of sexual harassment to file complaints.

Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick also announced Tuesday he will be taking an indefinite leave of absence from his post in light of the recent turmoil at the company.