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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday July 05 2017, @06:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the into-the-light dept.

Their stories came out slowly, even hesitantly, at first. Then in a rush.

One female entrepreneur recounted how she had been propositioned by a Silicon Valley venture capitalist while seeking a job with him, which she did not land after rebuffing him. Another showed the increasingly suggestive messages she had received from a start-up investor. And one chief executive described how she had faced numerous sexist comments from an investor while raising money for her online community website.

What happened afterward was often just as disturbing, the women told The New York Times. Many times, the investor's firms and colleagues ignored or played down what had happened when the situations were brought to their attention. Saying anything, the women were warned, might lead to ostracism.

Now some of these female entrepreneurs have decided to take that risk. More than two dozen women in the technology start-up industry spoke to The Times in recent days about being sexually harassed. Ten of them named the investors involved, often providing corroborating messages and emails, and pointed to high-profile venture capitalists such as Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital and Dave McClure of 500 Startups, who did not dispute the accounts.

The disclosures came after the tech news site The Information reported that female entrepreneurs had been preyed upon by a venture capitalist, Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital. The new accounts underscore how sexual harassment in the tech start-up ecosystem goes beyond one firm and is pervasive and ingrained. Now their speaking out suggests a cultural shift in Silicon Valley, where such predatory behavior had often been murmured about but rarely exposed.

-- submitted from IRC


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:07AM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:07AM (#535070)

    Silicon Valley. Spearhead of ultra-progressive California.

    It's sexist. Aggressively, exploitatively sexist.

    We get it.

    It will start to be news when these things stop happening. When women look up and say: "What? No, I guess I heard of that happening once, but never to me."

    Until then, this is just more evidence that investor types are exploitative dicks. Something that anyone who's ever dealt with them, male or female, could have told you for free.

    Next story.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:37AM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:37AM (#535080) Homepage

    Yes, Google and Facebook preach tolerance and diversity while still being 70% White males and 29.9% Asian (What we Americans call "oriental" to distinguish good workers from Arab scum) males.

    Funny thing is, in my part of California, I've seen plenty of Female STEM bosses. Not a majority, but not a minority as they are in Silicon Valley. Huh, the rest of the world ain't like San Francisco and New York City...imagine that!

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by bradley13 on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:38AM (1 child)

    by bradley13 (3053) on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:38AM (#535081) Homepage Journal

    "investor types are exploitative dicks"

    Speaking from current experience: this is simple truth.

    What I find strange is that some of them are so out to screw people that they actually (imho) act counter to their own interests. Present them with a situation where "win-win" is clearly the way to go? Forget it, if the other guy doesn't lose, it's apparently no fun.

    --
    Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:51AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:51AM (#535090)

      Speaking from current experience: this is simple truth.

      "Show us on the doll, bradley, where the nasty start-up CEO touched you. It will be alright."

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:55AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:55AM (#535093)

    It will start to be news when these things stop happening. When women look up and say: "What? No, I guess I heard of that happening once, but never to me."

    No, that will never make the news. For the same reason that "Well, I've heard of someone being robbed but it never happened to me" does not make the news.

    • (Score: 1) by technoid_ on Wednesday July 05 2017, @12:44PM

      by technoid_ (6593) on Wednesday July 05 2017, @12:44PM (#535154)

      There is a difference between "being news" and "making the news".

      Hoping for it being a language difference issue, but I am unaware of what the native tongue of AC-land is.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 06 2017, @02:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 06 2017, @02:24PM (#535730)

    Not sure why you got modded 0. You are too realistic for the mass of Soylent idealists I guess...

    You can't change nature. Evolution cares not about justice or moral standards--it only cares about who can survive and procreate. Risk takers fare well by nature and so they will inevitably persist in society, attracted to the regions and industries where favorable conditions for their strategy exist.

    Seems perfectly rational to me. Also, not news.