#GAReads | Ellen Pao: Has Anything Really Changed for Women in Tech?
Anthonyavalos408 [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
"Ellen Pao: Has Anything Really Changed for Women in Tech?":
Just five years ago, I sued Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm in Silicon Valley where I had worked since 2005, for bias and gender discrimination. The lawsuit, which I lost, led to the venture capital world closing ranks against me. I had trouble finding work. People were afraid to support me publicly. I was called a fraud, and greedy, and was accused of being in a fake marriage.
Now, over the past year, at least a dozen women have publicly shared their stories of being discriminated against and harassed in tech by their managers, by investors or by board members. Privately, I have heard dozens more.
What I also hear, over and over again, is the question, “Has anything changed?”