It takes such incredible bravery to call out this kind of behavior in a palce that can feel too much like an old boys club. I'm in awe of these women. From Susan Fowler to Niniane Wang to Leiti Hsu & Susan Ho to the ones in this article. I don't know any of them but they are the catalysts of progress. It's up to all of us to make sure this is a turning point for an industry that needs to do so much better.
Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment
231–240 of 882 posts
Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment
#232I 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…
I am in the same position as you. I constantly and graphically think about sex with my female colleagues. However it has actually helped my career because I don't interrupt my female colleagues at the whiteboard or in meetings, rather I nod and affirm them while I fantasize about sex with them. As an ironic consequence I have gotten a reputation for being respectful of women's ideas and encouraging of their career de…
That's awful. Stop it.
Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
The groping is probably illegal independent of workplace context, the stuff done in hiring is as illegal as if it was done during employment, much of rest is probably not illegal.
I'm not commenting on the ethics of this, but the woman who was "groped" stated that she consented to it. I know this may seem distasteful, but whether she allows the kissing/groping because she's attracted to him or because she just needs his help, it's still consent in my mind: "I felt like I had to tolerate it because this is the cost of being a nonwhite female founder,"
Toleration, as described there, is not consent.
Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment
#234What are your thoughts on women with borderline personality disorder abusing an environment in which the burden of proof is placed entirely on the defendant?
I think building a policy based on the possible existence of a vanishingly small group of bad actors is a great way to make excuses for avoiding solving real problems...
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Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is sexual discrimination in business actually a crime in the US? I thought it was typically handled in civil court.
I think you're right. It's "unlawful" but handled civilly. While looking up the relevant law, I looked through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex and various other things, and discovered that there is an explicit exception written in to the law for members of the Communist Party. So you can totally discriminate against any commies who might try to work for you.…
Jeez, the Cold War was a strange time. The exception seems especially weird since political party affiliation wasn't a protected class in the law to begin with. I guess that meant you legally could say, "We only hire non-Communists, regardless of sex/race/religion/...; and white Communist Jain men of Estonian origin."
I wonder if it was just a "safeguard" against members of CPUSA claiming their membership was a religious affiliation.
Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I expect less VCs to take meetings with women, sadly. Why? There's a really simple procedure that can solve these problems: Don't hit on, feel-up, or try to have sex with people you're in a professional business relationship with . That goes double for people you hold power over (managers to employees, VCs to Founders, etc). If you're really truly worried about false accusations then here's another fix you can have…
> I expect less VCs to take meetings with women, sadly. Why? There's a really simple procedure that can solve these problems: Don't hit on, feel-up, or try to have sex with people you're in a professional business relationship with. That goes double for people you hold power over (managers to employees, VCs to Founders, etc). If you're really truly worried about false accusations then here's another fix you can have…
If you're a VC, you can just ask if it's okay that you record the meeting for record-keeping or pick-your-reason.
Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
Heads are already rolling https://500.co/making-changes-at-500/ https://medium.com/@sacca/i-have-more-work-to-do-c775c5d56ca...
He turned off comments on his super creepy post.
He could have left out a couple of the self congratulatory bits about how he's making a real difference, that's up to others. But other than that that post could have been a lot worse.
Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment
#238This entire article is a smorgasbord of cringe: > During the recruiting process, Mr. McClure, a founder of 500 Startups and an investor, sent her a Facebook message that read in part, “I was getting confused figuring out whether to hire you or hit on you.” One would think having the phrases "hire you" and "hit on you" in the same sentence when communicating with someone undergoing recruitment at your company would be…
What if the choice were "no investment or attention" versus "creepy attention and small investment"?
Entrepreneurs are so willing to sacrifice, and this should not be the situation, but what if it is? How many of us males would accept these types of advances in order to get our idea funded?
To think that we can remove power from sex is misguided. There were times during my startup that I would have wished for the attention, even as a straight male, if only because it was better than the nothingness that my idea lived in otherwise.
Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is people being assholes because they know they can get away with it. Nope. These people are being assholes because they ARE assholes. Never attribute to rational decision making what can be attributed to rotten character.
High functioning sociopaths. A person can be an asshole and not know it. A sociopath knows they're not acting within acceptable social norms and hides it. These investors are sociopaths. An asshole will make a comment and not deny it. A sociopath will try to twist it into a seemingly logical action ie "I was just trying to get rid of her because I didn't like her idea." By that logic who knows how many Jehovah's witn…
>High functioning sociopaths.
That's actually a medical/psychiatric diagnosis. I don't really think it applies here (or maybe it does, I don't know, I only know that you can't just throw that casually at run-of-the mill creeps).
Re: Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment
#240Good that they came out, many admitted to it, and some are gone. That's the good news. Still, one was extra weird and messed up that I had to at least look at both of them in how they presented themselves: Marc Cantor vs Wendy Dent. It was one of few where little info and no picture was available for the woman. It already presented his background plus him admitting he sent sexual and weird messages to her in response…
Wow. Is this satirical? This is disgusting - you are part and parcel of the rampant sexism the women in the article are speaking out against. > That she might use sex appeal to her advantage is believable since many hard-working artists do. Just use every natural or acquired gift you have. You're evaluating whether or not you think somebody's claim of harassment is true based on whether or not you think they are attr…
"Does that mean that you would disregard allegations by somebody you found homely?"
That's exactly what Trump asked all the voters in America to do, and many did.
Donald Trump Says Accusers Are Too Ugly For Him To Have Groped: “Believe me, she would not be my first choice,” he said of one woman.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/10/donald-trump-insults-...