Despite years of pledges toward gender equity, new joint research by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and the World Benchmarking Alliance reveals that some of the world’s most powerful technology companies are falling dangerously short in protecting the rights of women and LGBTQI+ people across their operations, products, and services.

Drawing on over a decade of data (2014–2024), this report identifies more than 200 gender-related allegations linked to 11 major tech companies: Alibaba, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Foxconn, Intel, Microsoft, Samsung, X, and Uber. These include allegations of gender-based hate speech, online and offline harassment, discriminatory hiring practices, and violations of privacy and reproductive rights.

Key findings from the analysis revealed that:

Eight of the 11 companies have made commitments to gender equality and women empowerment, but only three companies (Amazon, Foxconn and Intel) screen suppliers for gender-related issues, according to their public disclosures.

Most (57%) allegations of harm were linked to downstream impacts on end-users, communities or individuals upon which technologies are being imposed (once the products and services leave the hands of the company). These include:

• Fuelling or promoting gender-based stereotypes and hate speech (58 allegations);
• Harassment, sexual harassment, violence and abuse online (36);
• Threats to freedom of expression and the right to information (26);
• Harassment, sexual harassment, physical violence or abuse offline (24);
• Violations of the right to privacy (22);
• Gender-based exclusion or lack of equitable access (18).

This was followed by 39% of allegations linked to companies’ own operations, including:

• Violations of labour rights (51 allegations);
• Harassment, sexual harassment, physical violence or abuse (17);
• Negative impacts on physical health, including reproductive rights (15);
• Gender-based exclusion or lack of equitable access (12);
• Underrepresentation and lack of temporary special measures (10);
• Lack of access to effective, culturally sensitive remedy (6).

This is not a knowledge gap. It is a failure of will.

These findings are a call to action: tech companies must go beyond cosmetic diversity statements and commit to gender-competent systems, safeguards, and remedies.

We invited all 11 companies to respond. Responses can be found here.