Chances are if you are reading this blog you are aware of the rampant sexism in tech culture here in the Bay Area. Although the topic not new, many people may not know exactly how pervasive the issue is within the tech community. I was looking up news in the area and found The Elephant In The Valley, a recent survey that profiled the experiences of anonymous female executives in Silicon Valley.
The women who created the survey, Trae Vassallo and MicheleMadansky, said they were inspired to measure the conscious and unconscious bias women faced in the tech industry after Vassallo (who previously worked as a general partner at Kleiner Perkins) was subpoenaed to testify in the Ellen Pao trial about her own experiences with sexual harassment and discrimination.
A total of 222 women who have worked in the tech industry for at least a decade responded to the survey and the results were grim. Three-quarters of the women held titles of vice president or above and were 40 years of age or older. Also some of the women were founders and in startups and others are employees at big companies like Google and Apple.
According to the survey, 90% of the respondents said they have seen sexist behavior at work or industry related events. Also 60% reported experiencing unwanted sexual advances, with 65% of those instances involving a superior. Sadly 39% of them did nothing about it because they feared speaking out would hurt their career. Among the women who did report the sexual advances, 60% were unsatisfied with the course of action taken by their company.