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Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment

nytimes.com

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Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment

#141

Post by tpush »

khazhoux wrote: post #117
tpush wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe it or not, there is stuff happening that you are not aware of. If your first reaction to hearing such things is "Well I've never seen it, therefore it probably doesn't exist", maybe some self-reflection is in order.

Thanks for the tip. I didn't realize other stuff happens around me. But still, there's lots of "constant murmurs" that don't pan out, and in many cases they're driven by agendas. It's easy to make or perpetuate claims when there's no attribution, no specific examples, etc. Just vague innuendos. So if some vague innuendo is contrary to my personal experience, yeah I won't believe it as fact. Kudos to these women for b…

Sure, I'm not saying you should 100% believe everything you hear. Just that dismissing such things outright based on a lack of personal experience is also not the right way.

Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment

#142

Post by mhluongo »

azylman wrote: post #53

I really hope that stories like this will let us stop blaming specific companies like Uber and accept that this is a problem with our industry. We're never going to be able to fix this as long as we keep sticking our heads in the sand and pretending it's not a systemic issue.

Can't we do both? Uber is especially bad and this is a systemic issue.

Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment

#143

Post by venantius »

oh_sigh wrote: post #116

There was a constant murmur(or was it a constant shouting) of hate crimes performed in the name of Trump shortly after the election, but almost all of them turned out to be hoax hate crimes perpetrated by the victims. I'm not saying that is the case with sexism in SV, which certainly exists - I am merely saying that people claiming something usually isn't enough proof alone that something is happening. Of course, you…

I'm sorry, I've seen absolutely no evidence that "almost all of them" were hoax hate crimes and I don't think you're capable of producing credible proof to this effect.

Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment

#144

Post by bdamm »

I have a confession to make.

With few exceptions, I cannot work with a woman without thinking about having sex with her. It's not like I'm trying, it's more like the thought is a blinking red light and I can't help but look at the thought. Then I realize the thought is absurd, but it's already happened. This normally doesn't leak out, but for some women, I will give them "eyes" and usually feel bad about it afterwards. But that can be persistent, and for the woman, must be kind of creepy feeling.

I'd love for this to not be the case, but after years of it, I'm at a loss as to how a man changes this somewhat foundational part of the brain.

The women for whom I don't have that thought almost always follow remarkably strict professional conduct to a T. The equivalent for a man would be top-button done up and formal slacks every day, never smiling. I actually really like working with these women because it's kind of a relief.

Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment

#145

Post by tommynicholas »

Apocryphon wrote: post #15

How is it that the old money industries of Wall Street and Hollywood, no vanguards of gender egalitarianism themselves, seem to have less flagrant sexual harassment issues? Do they keep them under wraps or are they just more mature by now?

LESS flagrant sexual harassment? Ohhhh noooooo. Tech has a ton of work to do and you'll hear no excuses about this behavior from me, but if you think it's worse in tech than in finance in particular you're mistaking "more newsworthy" with worse.

Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment

#146

Post by vkou »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #11

Has anyone seen a policy on how to handle sexual harassment allegations in the work place? If it comes down to 'he says she says' do you fire someone even though you don't have evidence? Similarly, if you don't fire someone and new allegations come up later then it makes the employer look like they are an enabler.

IANAL, but: If you take the accusations seriously, gather evidence, and properly investigate them, you are unlikely to be sued.

If it comes down to he said, she said, contact a lawyer.

Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment

#147

Post by [deleted] »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #11

Has anyone seen a policy on how to handle sexual harassment allegations in the work place? If it comes down to 'he says she says' do you fire someone even though you don't have evidence? Similarly, if you don't fire someone and new allegations come up later then it makes the employer look like they are an enabler.

[deleted]

Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment

#148

Post by fhrow4484 »

Apocryphon wrote: post #15

How is it that the old money industries of Wall Street and Hollywood, no vanguards of gender egalitarianism themselves, seem to have less flagrant sexual harassment issues? Do they keep them under wraps or are they just more mature by now?

They don't get discussed here because this is Hacker News, but this is discussed often in the media:

https://www.google.com/search?q=women+in+wall+street+sexism&...

What is interesting is that there seem to have been a burst of articles in 2016, but nothing in 2017. The first three pages of google results above have almost only articles from 2016, and a few from 2012, 2013, etc.

Maybe sexism sells more when it happens in the tech world, but unfortunately, I think it's happening in every industry , especially where women are a minority.

Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment

#149

Post by 19eightyfour »

CydeWeys wrote: post #13

This is a watershed moment in the VC industry. The dam has finally burst, and we're now seeing the establishment of a new norm in which women who are being harassed go public rather than feeling compelled to hide it. Expect to see many men who were operating under the old norms getting ousted.

Hopefully man on man abuse comes out as well. Sex abuse between all pairings / genders happens but there are not so many women VCs so it's unlikely that's going to come down here. But there are quite a few gay VCs.

My advice to everybody is keep meticulous notes and records of your interactions with others, regardless of gender. This is important to expose abuse and to expose lies.

Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment

#150

Post by [deleted] »

bdamm wrote: post #144

I have a confession to make. With few exceptions, I cannot work with a woman without thinking about having sex with her. It's not like I'm trying, it's more like the thought is a blinking red light and I can't help but look at the thought. Then I realize the thought is absurd, but it's already happened. This normally doesn't leak out, but for some women, I will give them "eyes" and usually feel bad about it afterward…

[deleted]
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