Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 1001 posts

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#251

Post by iamwil »

Does it seem like it's not the whole story? It seems like there's a piece of the story missing from before the wife's chat over beers.

It doesn't seem like the wife of a boss would ask a specific employee to one-on-one beers, unless she had a specific topic in mind. And boasting about pulling strings at Github seems like an unlikely purpose.

To me, it sounds like something happened that was unmentioned. And the wife was asked to talk to her, in order to help settle the aftermath, and make sure she was happy there. (I'm not sure why the wife was deployed instead of HR) Seen another way, it sounds like the wife was trying to help make her happy at work, and not trying to boast.

However, something went awry at the chat, and they seemed to end up not liking each other.

Anyone else feel like the whole story's not being told here?

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#252

Post by [deleted] »

gametheoretic wrote: post #244
jd0 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To use a metaphor you might understand I think you're programming around the bug instead of debugging. Maybe, shocking as it is, women are reacting to real injustices in these cases that you read about in "any article or blog post about sexism in tech" . If your immediate reaction to someone being called out for sexism is to distance yourself from women, have you ever considered that perhaps your attitude is sexist?…

That's nice. I don't feel like you're talking to me; I feel like you're talking to a person in your head.

[deleted]

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#253

Post by rdtsc »

chanux wrote: post #226
yeukhon wrote: post #183

There seems to be several problems. Not entirely sexism. 1. Founder's wife asked Horvath out and gave her a lecture about who is the boss. Probably out of jealousy. 2. Founder's wife physically inanimate Horvath, making her unwelcome and scared. 3. Founder did not stop the wife and protect his wife. 4. Horvath was approached by a male co-worker and according to her her rejection had caused tension between her and tha…

I, as a male, try to avoid staring at another female because I fear someone like Horvath accuses me of sexism. This is, sadly, the best thing to do because you don't know who is going to take offense. PS: To avoid looking one-sided and narrow (which I believe I'm not) I really feel bad about this whole situation and the lady who had to go through that. Personally liked a github as a company.

> This is, sadly, the best thing to do because you don't know who is going to take offense.

Then excessive avoidance gets reinterpreted as snobbishness, sexism, not wanting to be inclusive, and so on. "Men actively avoid me and sit father away during meetings, they don't invite me for beers after works, it is a hostile environment". Anyway it is a fine line. And one can interpret a lot of behaviors as stemming from sexism or misogynism even if they are not.

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#254

Post by yawz »

yeukhon wrote: post #183

There seems to be several problems. Not entirely sexism. 1. Founder's wife asked Horvath out and gave her a lecture about who is the boss. Probably out of jealousy. 2. Founder's wife physically inanimate Horvath, making her unwelcome and scared. 3. Founder did not stop the wife and protect his wife. 4. Horvath was approached by a male co-worker and according to her her rejection had caused tension between her and tha…

>While the founder is right about avoiding dating someone in your own company

This is one of my pet peeves. This is a professional setting and the employees are not 13. They should be mature enough to be able to handle their personal lives without bans or frown upons. Someone can't handle rejection? Who says he/she can handle criticism? What about disagreements?

To me this is a personality problem that should be dealt with accordingly. Company-wide bans or silent rules can hide bigger problems.

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#255

Post by [deleted] »

jaydz wrote: post #42
mwhite wrote: post #34

Well, there are only three Github founders, and a quick search seems to indicate that Tom Preston-Werner is the only one with a wife, Theresa: http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/27/omakase-charity-tech-indust...

Any guess who this is? “well-liked at GitHub” and “popular in the community.”

[deleted]

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#256

Post by XorNot »

iwasphone wrote: post #19

> Horvath then told her partner, also a GitHub employee... Protip: don't dip your pen in the company ink.

Everyone says this because it sounds obviously simple.

It's complete BS though. You spend 2/3'rds of your working life at work. The people you socialize, interact with and share common challenges are at work.

Unless you meet your partner in college, or high school or happen to have enough time in a shared extra-curricular (which a lot of us don't) then where exactly are you going to meet people at all.

Moreover, no part of this problem was a result of her relationship with another GitHub employee, except when people wanted some ammunition to use against her.

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#257

Post by enneff »

kansface wrote: post #248
enneff wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I try to avoid staring at people because my parents taught me that it's rude to stare. That's not to say that I don't admire people that I find attractive. I just do it subtly to avoid making people feel uncomfortable.

Somehow, furtive glances doesn't come across much better.

It is possible to check someone out without staring at them and without looking like a creep.

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#258

Post by zhodge »

Aqueous wrote: post #120

I'm not entirely sure the hula-hooping incident - merely observing girls hula hooping is not a crime, is it? - by itself constitutes a hostile atmosphere for women, unless inappropriate comments were being made. What we have here is some completely inappropriate, cloak and dagger, soap opera shit being perpetrated by the wife of the cofounder, who has no business meddling in the affairs of his employees. (If true, th…

It might not be a crime, but if I were a woman, I could easily see myself feeling uncomfortable in a situation that were to remind me of our gender-imbalanced culture(s).

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#259

Post by jw2013 »

I alway love Github as a company because Tom Preston-werner's storytelling of how Github is a company that optimize for employees' happniess. I hope Github can state something positive for this issue, otherwise it is a big hit to the company not only because of sexism, but also more importantly the losing of the culture of optimizing for happiness.

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#260

Post by jd0 »

watwut wrote: post #104

The story is confirming my long held prejudice/bias. If a company/organization organizes women only activities, then there is something profoundly wrong in their relationship towards women.

They call it confirmation bias for a reason.
Post reply on HN