Ellen Pao is a loser…at least in her courtroom battle. But she’s still committed to winning the war against sexism in the workplace.
Pao had sued her former employer, venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, for gender discrimination. A former junior partner in the firm, she claimed that the company did not promote her and ultimately fired her because she is a woman and had complained about her alleged mistreatment. On Friday, a San Francisco jury ruled against her.
Afterward, Pao tweeted, “If we do not share our stories and shine a light on inequities, things will not change.”
Of course, she’s right about that. That Pao did not prevail in court should hardly send a signal that women are thriving in the tech world. The U.S. Census found in 2013 that “women’s representation in computer occupations has declined since the 1990s.” Furthermore, research shows that some of the top tech firms have a serious gender gap. Take Intel, where only 24 percent of employees are female. Or Yahoo!, where women account for 38 percent of the workforce. Sure, Yahoo’s CEO is a female. And our President is black. Neither means that gender and race are not serious issues that we must continue to address. (Speaking of race, top tech companies also employ few black and Hispanic workers, particularly in engineering and management roles.)
But before we label any tech firm as sexist, it’s worth asking: Do many women even want to be tech geeks?
Over the years, lots of people have pondered the question, for which there are way too many answers, all of which are sort of right and kind of wrong. It’s quite likely that some women do not want to work in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) jobs due lack of interest or, worse, perceived (and actual) barriers of entry.
Still, even if most women don’t go into tech, many do. And we all have an obligation to ensure that any female who wishes to pursue a tech career—any career—enjoys the same opportunities and benefits as her male counterpart.
That’s why Pao, who is currently interim CEO of social-media company Reddit, is dedicated to enabling women to succeed in her field. In a Wall Street Journal interview, Pao explained that, among other initiatives, she removed salary negotiations from the hiring process because women don’t haggle for more money as well as men.
Finally, here’s Pao’s advice to any woman who may find herself a target of discrimination. “I would tell her to have confidence in herself, to know that what she’s doing is important, and to always remember not to let other people change her view of herself.”
