LinkedIn Creates Furor When It Bars Photos Of Pretty Female Engineers

Is it impossible to believe that beautiful women can be successful engineers? It apparently was inconceivable to some employees at LinkedIn, the professional social network. As Internet news website Daily Dot reported, last month LinkedIn pulled recruiting ads depicting attractive female engineers, telling the advertiser to use images "related to the product" instead.

On Friday, LinkedIn backed down and said "an error" had been made by the customer service department after LinkedIn members complained about the images, as a LinkedIn spokesperson told AOL Jobs via e-mail. But the damage was done. Taso Du Val, CEO of TopTal, an online community for software developers and the advertiser, was upset, as were bloggers, both of which accused LinkedIn of perpetuating sexism within the tech industry. (The image from the ad in question, which features developer Florencia Antara, is seen above.)