For the first time ever, Facebook today publicly revealed statistics outlining diversity among its employees. By offering up the data, Facebook has joined a growing, transparent movement in Silicon Valley; Google and Yahoo have also released diversity numbers, and all of the companies say theyre striving to do better. At Facebook, diversity is essential to achieving our mission, said Facebooks Maxine Williams. We build products to connect the world, and this means we need a team that understands and reflects many different communities, backgrounds and cultures. But at least for right now, Facebooks diversity figures follow disappointing trends seen across the tech industry. Globally, Facebooks workforce is 69 percent male and 31 percent female.