Bumble’s Women-only Networking Feature Isn’t a Job Discrimination Tool
Posted on March 5, 2019
THE VERGE – Mar 5 – Bumble recently added a filter to its professional networking mode, Bumble Bizz, to give women the option to only match with other women. The immediate response – mainly from men's rights pages – was, "Isn't this illegal?" Bumble Bizz first launched in 2017 as a separate mode within the dating app, allowing women and men to list their resume and skills. Bumble said that Bizz was designed for "networking and mentoring, not job searching or recruiting." Bumble said that the new, opt-in, women-only filter is meant to help women "foster each others' development and ask for the time they may not be getting in the work place." Despite Bumble's intentions, it's true that the filter could be misused in ways that could be illegal and discriminatory. Women looking for other women to make professional connections with or find mentors doesn't pose a legal problem, but if employers are looking to use Bumble Bizz to hire candidates, they should be thoughtful in how they use the filter. Bumble declined to comment on legal issues around using its tool for recruitment, but said that the women-only filter was driven by the demand of women using Bumble Bizz.
