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Ellen Pao Launches Advocacy Group To Improve Diversity In The Tech Industry (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the online-diversity dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Ellen Pao, a former Silicon Valley venture capitalist, today announced the launch of Project Include, an advocacy group aimed at improving diversity in the technology industry. The group was started by Pao and fellow female engineers and executives, including members of Slack, Pinterest, and other Bay Area VC firms. The initiative will focus on providing startups and established tech companies with information on making hiring more inclusive, improving retention, and examining bias in the workplace. Pao became embroiled in one of the most divisive debates in tech last year after suing her former employer, VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, for gender discrimination. She lost at trial and, later, stepped down from her position as interim CEO of Reddit following a severe harassment campaign. Project Include is also accepting as many as 18 startups, who can apply to receive recommendations through a program called Start-Up Include.

28 of 265 comments (clear)

  1. Fuck anyone with a penis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you disagree then you're part of the patriarchy.

    1. Re:Fuck anyone with a penis! by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Informative

      To an SJW, disagreement is synonymous with harassment.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    2. Re:Fuck anyone with a penis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How dare men have a sex drive that doesn't conform to marxism-feminism! Those filthy fascists! Time to build an iron curtain!

    3. Re:Fuck anyone with a penis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      If this were true we wouldn't be seeing this 'sjw-transsexual-feminist conspiracy' oozing from every major media orifice.

      1. Game conferences wouldn't be canceled just because there weren't enough vaginas. Valid job applicants wouldn't be terminated days later because their privately/financially expressed political views made someone 'feel uncomfortable.'
      2. Politicians wouldn't be taking statistics out of context and passing law.
      3. University professors would not be calling for policy to force men to let women speak first in all public discourse, and to cancel such meetings if not enough women are present.
      4. TV shows and commercials wouldn't be loaded with 'empowered' women labeling men as 'stupid dad' and 'manpig' stereotypes and ordering them around, or making sure that if the narrative calls for someone to show fear or emotion, it must be the man, with the 'empowered' woman consoling him like he's a child.
      5. Sweden (and south carolina) wouldn't be micromanaging how people go to the bathroom.
      6. Bruce Jenner would not have been in the news again. Somehow a psychological need to amputate a part of your body is considered a sign of mental illness, but if it's male genitalia, we're supposed to 'celebrate the diversity.' Figure that one out..

      If there're chicken littles and conspiracies meant to alter the way we think, they're definitely on the SJW side these days. The religious right tried this same tactic up through the 80s to push its crazy on us and failed. Now I guess it's the left wing's turn to push its brand of crazy. In light of this, it can be hard to remember that all of this hubris has no basis as long as society places individual rights ahead of groupthink ideology. Once we lose that, it's a race to the bottom.

    4. Re:Fuck anyone with a penis! by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nothing sits well with the Anonymous Cowards on Slashdot. Why do you expect this to be any different?

    5. Re:Fuck anyone with a penis! by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Can you cite some specific examples of these things happening. I'm genuinely interested, especially in some of the political stuff because it sounds quite concerning if politicians are undermining efforts to increase equality like that.

      I think I can guess what you are referring to in a few cases though.

      1. Game conferences wouldn't be canceled just because there weren't enough vaginas. Valid job applicants wouldn't be terminated days later because their privately/financially expressed political views made someone 'feel uncomfortable.'

      Which conference? In the job applicant case, would that be Eich? In which case I'd point out that freedom of speech (i.e. criticism) trumps him feeling comfortable in his job, even if he means he feels his position is no longer tenable.

      4. TV shows and commercials wouldn't be loaded with 'empowered' women labeling men as 'stupid dad' and 'manpig' stereotypes and ordering them around

      There are some great videos on YouTube where feminists and others often labelled as "SJWs" deconstruct those adverts. It's sad that advertisers are so dumb and feel that insulting their audience is a good idea.

      6. Bruce Jenner would not have been in the news again. Somehow a psychological need to amputate a part of your body is considered a sign of mental illness

      I'm afraid medical science is against you on this one. It's a lot like "shell shock" (now known as PTSD) in the 1910s. Cowards trying to get off the front line, not a complex psychological condition. Attach the electrodes, that'll get them talking again.

      The most interesting part of all this is the conspiracy theory you have constructed to link all these things by portraying them as some kind of attack. I've said it before - people who accuse others of being "SJWs" usually do all the things they attribute to SJWs.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. When you can't do real work.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Start an advocacy group to harass people who can.

    1. Re:When you can't do real work.... by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If this "project" follows the standard race-hustling/gender-hustling formula, it will look something like this:

      1) They approach your company and ask for you to sponsor them, or hire them to provide diversity training, or pay them to do a diversity study of your company (aka they'll shake you down for money)
      2) If you do sponsor/hire them, they'll call you progressive and give you a social justice free pass (a real commodity in ultra-liberal Silicon Valley)
      3) If you don't, they'll cite you as an example of a company that's not "embracing diversity" and is clearly racist/sexist/homophobic blah blah. You must be, otherwise you would have embraced diversity by giving them money, right?

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    2. Re:When you can't do real work.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Painting them with mob tactics. This is frighteningly accurate and come to think of it, not the first time I've heard of social issues being falsely used for personal financial/commercial gain; See Anita Sarkeesian.

  3. Step 1 to improving your company by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Never hire Ellen Pao.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Step 1 to improving your company by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...and never invest money with her husband.

      Grifters like Pao and Fletcher are why we can't have nice things.

  4. How about more 'diverse' U.S. citizens? by kheldan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If she's backing more U.S. citizens being employed instead of more overseas workers brought in on H1-B's, then I'm all for it, otherwise I couldn't care less.

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
    1. Re:How about more 'diverse' U.S. citizens? by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 5, Informative

      agism is the elephant in the room (I'm biased, I'm over 50 and unemployed in the bay area). I see lots of women where I was previous employed (at pretty much any place); but if you look for grey hair guys and girls, no, there are some token hires or maybe some rock star that happens to be old; but for the most part, if you are over 35 and looking to stay technical in this area of the country, LOTSA LUCK to you.

      the other elephant (yeah, its crowded in this room) is that if you are born in the west, especially the US, employers mostly prefer to NOT hire you and instead take an h1b or other form of import. its not about race; its about being brought up here and knowing your rights, knowing you can say NO to your boss for that 4th weekend request in a row of his, knowing lots of things that foreigners who were not raised in the US culture simply don't know.

      employers leverage the HELL out of that fact. most people outside the US who are from asia, for example, has zero idea what freedom really is. they are perfectly fine with being eavesdropped, spied, directed, micromanaged and then disposed of. they think its normal. US born folks know better, and so we are not the first choice when it comes to hiring.

      the cries of DIVERSITY! is bullshit and yet another distraction to hide what is really going on. war on middle class; and that mostly means folks born here and who have a vested interest in what happens here in the next 10, 20, 50 years. but we are being passed over for most of the core hiring in the valley.

      btw, indians who end up staying here and having kids; YOUR kids are now americans and they will be passed over just like I and my friends are, now. think long and hard about that, immigrants; and think again if you really should hire yet more h1b's or if you should, maybe give some locals a chance at some of those jobs. later on, your kids will be the locals. think about it.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  5. Let's shift that focus a little by suupaabaka · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The article is a bit light in detail as to what Pao's trying to accomplish, but from her history, I'm assuming it's about gender

    But maybe we should focus on diversity of skills and experience rather than diversity of physical characteristics?

    1. Re:Let's shift that focus a little by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The article is a bit light in detail as to what Pao's trying to accomplish

      My guess would be to extort businesses to give her money under the threat of calling them sexist-racists if they don't. You know, the standard race-hustling, gender-hustling modus operandi.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  6. Re:I think I finally understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's exactly the kind of misogynist hatespeech that's proof that this initative is needed. Ellen Pao is a hero and you should be fired.

  7. Slashdot Still Fooled by Harassment Narratives? by Kunedog · · Score: 5, Informative

    She lost at trial and, later, stepped down from her position as interim CEO of Reddit following a severe harassment campaign

    Please. Here's an outline of the shitshow that Pao and the rest of the Reddit regime (which is still largely intact) caused, leading to her ouster:
    https://news.slashdot.org/comm...

  8. Enough with Diversity by BeemanIT · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just getting tired about all this diversity stuff and not enough with just simply having the best workers. If they want diversity why does this seem to be limited to the Technology area and not to other areas like medicine? For examples most nurses are women, you don't hear them saying they need more men in nursing?

  9. Well, THIS should engender thoughtful discussion. by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hate it when the handlers don't warn the bystanders before they throw in the raw meat.

  10. better products through diversity by frovingslosh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, we must end the scourge of things being designed by well educated engineers, and add the diversity of blond bimbo strippers, people who "identify" with the gender that they were not born into, people who choose to waste their public education and remain illiterate (although some of those are still waiting for the Basketball or rap "music" opportunity that society owes them), and people who bring different insight through dubious chemical means that Obama chooses to look the other way on. Of course, we will still let the engineers do the actual work, but we must add the other diversity to the design teams.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  11. Re:I think I finally understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The shit Ellen Pao has done in the past has done so much harm to the image of women in tech leadership roles than this bullshit campaign can ever fix.

  12. Chairman Pao by zapadnik · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Over on Reddit they started calling her "Chairman Pao" for the censorious regime Ms Pao imposed. She also 'purged' pro-Free Speech moderators. We gotta fight such people, the authoritarians "doing it for our own good" or because it "hurts someones feelings".

    Free Speech is the whole ballgame. Lose that and no-one gets to "talk Truth to Power".

  13. What would help diversity by melted · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What would help diversity (among other things) is not extorting a multimillion dollar settlement out of your employer by filing a lawsuit about things you've made up.

  14. She should try improving her own competency by JoeyRox · · Score: 5, Informative

    Pao is still operating under the delusion that she's no longer a VC due to sexism. Anyone who closely followed her bias case against Kleiner Perkins knows the exact opposite is true; she was given extraordinary opportunities there, much more than the average partner-in-training. Yet she still couldn't get out of her own way on the path to success paved for her by John Doerr. Diversity was not her foe; it was entitlement, jealously, laziness, and incompetence.

  15. Re:I think I finally understand by lucm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Correction: he should be fired quietly and he should not make a tweet or post a single comment on Reddit to report it.

    We don't want to repeat the Donglegate incident where Adria Richards, after being psychologically raped by a private discussion made behind her in a room full of 300 people, was victimized a second time by people who unfairly called her a cunt for getting a guy fired over such bullshit.

    --
    lucm, indeed.
  16. Re:I think I finally understand by lucm · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hilary "Yahoo!Mail" Clinton

    --
    lucm, indeed.
  17. Beware of Slack by lucm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Here's a tweet from their talented "Lead Growth", who's also founder of "Women in Product":

    Day three of using a Windows machine: was totally mentally exhausted last night, dreaded work this morning. Struggling to do small things.

    https://twitter.com/merci/stat...

    How fucking entitled can someone get?

    When I see people like that, I seriously wonder if I should consider another career than IT. Those idiots just ruin the entire industry.

    --
    lucm, indeed.
  18. Re:Pao was on your side, idiots by jcr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What's sad is that the knee jerk sexist responses here only prove Pao's point.

    Go fuck yourself, snowflake. We're talking about Pao, not women in general.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."