Whereas: Institutionalized sexism, compounded by racism, has become an undeniable, visible, widespread, and multifaceted problem in the tech industry:

• The topic of sexism in the tech industry has been covered by major media outlets:

 ○ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/02/19/women-built-tech-indu…)

 ○ (https://www.fastcompany.com/40477163/the-industry-is-fundamentally-brok…)

 ○ (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/17/sexual-harassment-silicon…)

 ○ (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/20/the-tech-industrys-gender…)

• At Google, tens of thousands of workers walked off the job to protest the mishandling of sexual harassment. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/technology/google-walkout-sexual-har…)

• The media has reported on male employees at Microsoft and Google, openly questioning the innate capacity of women to be tech workers. (https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/google-employee-s-anti-d…) (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/04/now-its-microsofts-turn-for…)

• The presence of multiple high-profile lawsuits at peer companies regarding gender discrimination or gender and race discrimination are an indication of the severity of this problem. Cases include Pao v Byers, Massouris v Microsoft, Huang v. Twitter, Hong v Facebook, Blackwell and Boyd v Salesforce, Vandermeyden v. Tesla and the Oracle case which was brought by the federal government.

• Prominent social theorists assert that race and gender combine to create unique forms of discrimination. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberl%C3%A9_Williams_Crenshaw)

Whereas: Numerous experts have noted that institutionalized sexism, compounded by racism, hurts corporate performance:

• A study of employees who left companies for reasons related to equity revealed significant costs (https://www.smash.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/corporate-leavers-surv…;

• A McKinsey study revealed a correlation between more diverse leadership and superior financial performance (https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/w…)

• Experts have shown that women are leaving the tech industry because of lack of career advancement opportunities (https://hbr.org/2019/10/why-techs-approach-to-fixing-its-gender-inequal…) (https://www.fastcompany.com/90274067/this-is-why-women-leave-jobs-in-te…) (https://medium.com/tech-diversity-files/the-real-reason-women-quit-tech…)

• Other analysts have shown that race combines with gender to create even greater barriers to advancement for women of color (https://medium.com/awaken-blog/intersectionality-101-why-were-focusing-…) (https://www.vox.com/2017/10/3/16401054/gender-race-executive-profession…)

Whereas: Gender balance among Amazon’s upper ranks is a challenge

• Amazon’s overall workforce is 58% men and 42% women (https://www.aboutamazon.com/working-at-amazon/diversity-and-inclusion/o…)

• Amazon’s managers are 73% men and 27% women (https://www.aboutamazon.com/working-at-amazon/diversity-and-inclusion/o…)

• Amazon’s top 22 executives – called the S-Team – are 86% men and 14% women (https://www.geekwire.com/2019/amazon-expands-bezos-elite-s-team-adding-…)

Whereas: Researchers have noted that analyzing who a company promotes is an effective way of revealing bias against women and underrepresented minorities.

(https://hbr.org/2019/10/why-techs-approach-to-fixing-its-gender-inequal…)

(https://www.fastcompany.com/90274067/this-is-why-women-leave-jobs-in-te…)

(https://medium.com/tech-diversity-files/the-real-reason-women-quit-tech…)

Whereas: Shareholders need data to determine the level of risk due to the possibility of institutionalized sexism at Amazon;

Resolved: Shareholders request that Amazon prepare a public report, as soon as practicable, disclosing promotion velocity rates at Amazon. Promotion velocity is defined as the time it takes from the date of hire to promotion, or between one promotion and the next. The report should provide promotion velocity rates by title and level for different gender and racial identities. It should be prepared at reasonable expense and may exclude confidential information.