Otherwise egalitarian and fair-minded men may not even notice the absence of female leaders and decision makers. So many social, financial, family, and even personality issues converge at the nexus of women and high tech. What's going on here? From my interviews and observations, a lot. While the men I spoke with were happy to hold forth about cap rates, sales growth and cool products they designed, not a single one mentioned gender. In the course of doing the research for my books Startup Wealth and Life, Liquidity & the Pursuit of Happiness, I spoke on an off the record with more than 65 entrepreneurs, VCs, engineers, tech employees, and advisors about what it takes to be successful in the ultra-competitive world of startups. While it's too soon to predict the full extent of the ramifications of this double-whammy against a single, if singular, female executive in a field that's 90% male, it's safe to say that Silicon Valley's problems with women do not begin and end with Pao. (Reddit execs banded together to ban five subreddits for fostering real-world harassment, and Pao was the subject of hateful posts and a petition whose goal was her ouster.) Follow her at /heathersomervil.In less than four months earlier this year, Bay Area high-tech all-star Ellen Pao lost a sex discrimination lawsuit against her former employer (venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins) and her job with her more recent employer (the user-curated-and-moderated content site Reddit) for supposedly unrelated reasons. The firm said it conducted an independent investigation immediately after Pao raised concerns in 2012 but “concluded (her) discrimination and retaliation complaints were without merit,” according to Kleiner’s response to the lawsuit.Ĭontact Heather Somerville at 51. She says Kleiner Perkins fired her, while the firm says it advised her to leave based on her performance. Pao “experienced continued retaliation after she complained about sexual harassment to the highest level of management of KPCB,” according to the lawsuit. Meanwhile, the man Pao said had pressured her into sex was promoted, according to court documents. The firm did nothing to prevent further harassment and instead perpetuated a culture of gender discrimination by paying her - and other women at the firm - less, failing to promote them and excluding them from partner events, according to her lawsuit. Pao first complained about the firm’s treatment of women in 2007, after she told management about a married male junior partner who she said pressured her into having an affair in 2006 and continued to sexually harass her, according to her lawsuit. Pao took over as interim CEO at Reddit in November. Kleiner has maintained that Pao’s accusations are without merit and said she has “twisted facts and events in an attempt to create legal claims where none exit,” according to court documents.Īlso Monday, the judge heard requests from Kleiner attorneys to obtain information from microblogging site Reddit, Pao’s current employer, that will reveal the value of her stake in the company. Attorneys for Kleiner had opposed Lee’s deposition, calling it irrelevant and an intrusion on Lee’s privacy. Pao, who joined Kleiner in 2005, filed the lawsuit in May 2012, saying that in January of that year she had filed a written complaint with management about what she considered the firm’s culture of gender discrimination she was told to leave the firm in October 2012.Īlso at Monday’s hearing, a judge allowed Pao to question a former colleague, Aileen Lee, about a dinner that only male partners at the firm attended at former Vice President Al Gore’s apartment, and also ask about Pao’s employment and termination. The $16 million request was made during a hearing Monday at San Francisco Superior Court. SAN FRANCISCO - A former Silicon Valley venture capitalist is seeking $16 million from prominent firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in a high-profile lawsuit that accuses the firm of blatant and entrenched gender discrimination.Įllen Pao, the former VC partner, has requested that her former employer pay millions for allegedly stymying her career at the firm and withholding raises and promotions because of her gender.
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