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Win Or Lose, Discrimination Suit Is Having an Effect On Silicon Valley

SpzToid sends word that the Ellen Pao vs. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers discrimination case wrapped up yesterday. No matter what the outcome turns out to be, it has already affected how business is being done in Silicon Valley. "'Even before there's a verdict in this case, and regardless of what the verdict is, people in Silicon Valley are now talking,' said Kelly Dermody, managing partner at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, who chairs the San Francisco law firm's employment practice group. 'People are second-guessing and questioning whether there are exclusionary practices [and] everyday subtle acts of exclusion that collectively limit women's ability to succeed or even to compete for the best opportunities. And that's an incredibly positive impact.' Women in tech have long complained about an uneven playing field — lower pay for equal work, being passed over for promotions and a hostile 'brogrammer' culture — and have waited for a catalyst to finally overhaul the status quo. This trial — pitting a disgruntled, multimillionaire former junior partner against a powerful Menlo Park, Calif., venture capital firm — was far from the open-and-shut case that many women had hoped for. More gender discrimination suits against big tech firms are expected to follow; some already have, including lawsuits against Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc."

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  1. Re:Just in tech? by rubycodez · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But in reality the actual pay difference is about 7%. Now look at the number of sick days women take compared to men, about 50% more. And guess the primary cause of that.....

  2. There is one effect TFA omits ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ... that more and more investors are deciding to not put their money into places where frivolous lawsuits are prevalent, such as the Silicon Valley

    Fact that Intel had to put up $300million for their 'woman in tech' program as a bribe to the feminists is alarming to many investors

    1. Re:There is one effect TFA omits ... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ... that more and more investors are deciding to not put their money into places where frivolous lawsuits are prevalent, such as the Silicon Valley

      It is interesting that news stories never mention that Ellen Pao is a lawyer. I don't know what Kleiner Perkins was thinking when they hired her, and made her a junior partner. If you hire a carpenter, that carpenter is going to try to solve every problem with a hammer. If you hire a lawyer, that lawyer is going to try to solve every problem with a lawsuit. That's what they do.

    2. Re:There is one effect TFA omits ... by Etherwalk · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It is interesting that news stories never mention that Ellen Pao is a lawyer. I don't know what Kleiner Perkins was thinking when they hired her, and made her a junior partner. If you hire a carpenter, that carpenter is going to try to solve every problem with a hammer. If you hire a lawyer, that lawyer is going to try to solve every problem with a lawsuit. That's what they do.

      Yes, what a shame it is that they hired someone who knew enough to assert her rights if she faced gender discrimination. Much better to hire someone from inside the tech industry who had acclimated to the gender discrimination properly already.

      End Sarcasm.

      Yes, a lawyer is more likely to sue you if you do something wrong. It doesn't make it wrong to hire a lawyer.

    3. Re:There is one effect TFA omits ... by Etherwalk · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, a lawyer is more likely to sue you if you do something wrong. It doesn't make it wrong to hire a lawyer.

      It doesn't make it wrong, but it does make it dumb.

      An engineer is more likely to hold your private key hostage. It doesn't make it wrong to hire an engineer.

  3. THIS!! Read the Research! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Good grief I am so tired of hearing this bullshit argument by people when it is so easily discounted with.. oh my.. FACTS! The only I can believe at this point, is that people in power are desperate to keep us pitted against each other so they are dumping shit tons of money into the extremist feminist movement. Everyone needs to just start boycotting. Turn off any TV station that repeats the bullshit, turn off the radio station, don't buy the publication, and don't read the blogs.

    Women don't want to work in tech! Oculus proved it, and even stated openly that they gave favoritism to women. Women did not apply for jobs, so how can they "fix" the balance unless these dipshit SJWs start forcing women into a career they don't want? Everyone knows that IT jobs in general are longer hours, less vacation, less time off, and extremely high stress. I don't blame women for not wanting to work in the field, and see nothing wrong with their choices.

    Without all the recent hype, and since the very early 70s, women have been on an unequal field in THEIR favor! There are more women graduating college today than men, there are more women PHDs than men, there are more women in education than men, there are more women than men in industries like child care where women can be closer to their kids. Further, the rate of suicides for women is much lower than men while their work participation is at an all time high, meaning they are not suffering from the same stress as men.

    All the bullshit about a patriarchy and rape culture is exactly bullshit. Most women get it and ignore the feminists, so why the fuck are our politicians and media outlets giving them so much air time hmm? I believe the answer is what I started with.. people in power want us pitted against each other and the argument is too simple to latch on to.... if you are a useful idiot that is

  4. Really? by tsotha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People are second-guessing and questioning whether there are exclusionary practices [and] everyday subtle acts of exclusion that collectively limit women's ability to succeed or even to compete for the best opportunities. And that's an incredibly positive impact.

    Are people really that stupid? Huge payouts in these sorts of lawsuits isn't going to demonstrate to companies they should spend all their time policing their "everyday subtle acts". It's going to convince them women are legally dangerous and shouldn't be hired at all. It's a hell of a lot harder to bring a suit against a company that never hires you than against one for which you're employed, and business owners know this.

  5. Re:Just in tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, the garbage pickers, ditch diggers, coal miners, EMT workers sure have women clamoring for equal opportunities.

    Oh what's that? Only cushy office jobs?

  6. Why so many social justice articles here at /.? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've been a reader of /. for many years now. While this site has never been known for having the highest quality content, I'm seeing more and more and more social justice submissions making it onto the front page here.

    So there's this submission. Just a few hours ago there was one about "booth babes" being banned at some conference. A few hours before that there was one about some British TV host who was dismissed from his show over some incident.

    While this stuff may be indirectly related to technology, it's all so irrelevant here. If I cared to read about whatever minor social injustice is trending these days, I'd go read Twitter comments or even the mainstream media.

    Yeah, I know I could just ignore this submission, and the many others, but there are just so many of them these days! They also end up taking up front page space that could be used by more interesting and relevant submissions.

    I say this as a woman, as well. Just because I was born with a vagina it doesn't mean that I want to read about all of this social nonsense junk. And just because I wasn't born with a penis it doesn't mean that I'm not interested in reading about scientific discoveries or technological breakthroughs or new mathematical proofs! /. editors, please tone down the social justice poop. Give us good articles about relevant topics! Social justice is not a relevant topic here!

    1. Re:Why so many social justice articles here at /.? by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, I submitted an article about how Wikipedia canned a gaggle of feminist editors from Wikipedia for spewing crap on gender related entries and it never saw the light of day, yet this agitprop makes the grade? Okay, the day will come and indeed is coming when this clear bigotry will reflect very badly indeed on slashdot editors. I know I'd certainly never hire one of them based on their past performance.

  7. You are missing the obvious point! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If a person works 35-40 hours a week should they receive the same pay as someone working 45-50 hours? Anyone looking at that should say "No, the person working more hours should receive more pay." but somehow this obvious point eluded you.

    There are several valid reasons for pay differences between genders. Men work more. More hours, more days, and even the shitty shifts tend to be occupied by males (barring food services where it's close to equal). Men choose higher risk and higher stress fields to work in. In the same fields of work with the same hours worked women make the same amount of money as men and often receive MORE money than men in the same field of work.

    Your anecdotal fallacy of what an ideal work day provides nothing of value to the conversation. Logic is not that goddamn hard, learn to use it!

    1. Re:You are missing the obvious point! by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Greater productivity per worker means less demand for workers.

      No it doesn't. It means more demand. Read up on Jevon's Paradox. As a resource (including labor) is used more efficiently, demand for it goes up, not down, because of greater opportunities. It would only go down if the Lump of Labor Fallacy wasn't a fallacy.

      If you owned a factory, and you had a way to make your workers ten times more productive, would you fire 90% of them? Or would you realize that your profit per worker was now ten times higher, and expand your factory and hire more workers?

      more productive workforce means worse-paid workforce.

      That explains why high productivity like America, Western Europe, and Japan, are mired in poverty, while countries like Somalia, Liberia, and Afghanistan, which avoided the "productivity catastrophe" are prospering. Whatever.

  8. Re:Genderless information by BronsCon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This.

    People need to (wo)man the fuck up and talk to each other, let them know where *your* lines are, and only escalate if they continue to *purposely* cross them. Don't be a knob about it and clarify your limits once, then escalate when they make some off the cuff remark a year later; learn to let things go once in a while, as we're all human and we all let things slip occasionally. Unless they're being purposely offensive to you and have made it clear they simply don't care if it bothers you (and they'll typically come right out and say as much to your face, so you don't have to read into things), you probably don't need to (and shouldn't) escalate things, because yes, that can and often do backfire. Sure, the person you complain about takes a pay cut, gets transferred out, or gets fired, but you become a social pariah around the workplace and nobody will have your back if anything actually does happen.

    TL;DR: Be nice. Think twice.

    --
    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  9. Maybe it's about her personality. by jcr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is a woman who fucked a married colleague, has a history of being abrasive, and thinks she's entitled to get paid more than Tim Cook earns in a year.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  10. Re:THIS!! Read the Research! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Most women get it and ignore the feminists

    Exactly, the only way the summary makes any sense to me is if you replace the word "woman" with "feminist".

    The feminist organizations are much like the federal Rural Electrification Commission. Long after their stated goals have been accomplished, the institution seeks to perpetuate its own existence and exaggerate its own relevance. A sane, rational institution established to accomplish a few clearly stated goals would dissolve itself after those goals have come to pass. But this is not the way of establishments of any sort. They take on a life of their own, complete with their own survival instincts, and become monsters, and truth is easily compromised if that helps advance this goal.

  11. Re:Just in tech? by phantomfive · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The problem is, the workaholics and institution types effectively have forced their ways on everyone else.

    Then negotiate your contract to get more days off. I've done it, you can do it, too.

    The catch is, you won't get paid as much, and most people aren't willing to put up with that.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  12. Re:Just in tech? by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Insightful

    *shrug* the more people do it, the easier it will get. Maybe some people don't have the ability to negotiate that kind of contract. But if you're a programmer, you do.

    Once again, the biggest problem here is that people aren't willing to take a paycut. If you're not willing to do that, then it's a lot harder.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  13. Re:Actually... No. by guruevi · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Most businesses wouldn't have any major issue spending that little extra money; if they did, they wouldn't if they were slightly more efficient or if the CxO's got a few million dollars less.

    Eg. Coca-Cola has 130k employees. Increasing their employee base by 50% (I assume an average cost of $100k/employee) would cost $6.5B/y or barely 15% of their yearly revenue.

    You can make the same calculations for a number of companies, unless the company is severely mismanaged or inefficient (in which case it should fail anyway) you'll find that it is VERY affordable if only their CxO's would give up a few million of bonus or the shareholders wouldn't mind to throw in a penny.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  14. Re:Just in tech? by NotDrWho · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Women in any industry have long complained about an uneven playing field

    Funny, but I have yet to hear a single complaint from any woman about discrimination in the coal mining, garbage pickup, or commercial fishing industries. Somehow they're cool with men dominating all the fields that require hard and dangerous work. I guess they're okay with inequality when they're not on the receiving end of 93% of all workplace fatalities, the way men are. Don't hear too much from them about THAT glass ceiling, do you?

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  15. Re:THIS!! Read the Research! by itzly · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you want to claim that Oculus is proof women don't want to work in tech, you have to explain why their parent company (Facebook) manages to employ a 30% female workforce.

    Maybe those two companies are not doing the same kind of work ?