7/30/2023 0 Comments Kleiner perkins![]() The Ely study also found that, in 1990s law firms, men and women were seen as radically different-men as hyper-masculine women as hyper-feminine. It all sounds more like the Anita Hill hearings or the Tailhook scandal than a modern-day lesson in subtle stereotyping. Other partners, on a business trip with Pao, discussed with a portfolio CEO and co-investor their delightful time with porn stars at the Playboy mansion, their sexual partner preferences, and more - “an adult cable show that involved sexual acts, they were discussing the Victoria’s Secret runway show, they were discussing older men they knew who were dating younger women, and they had a comment on Marissa Mayer being hot so Dan would let her on his board,” to quote Pao’s testimony. A third gave her a sexually explicit book as a present for Valentine’s Day and invited her out to dinner, saying his wife was out of town. (Kleiner Perkins ultimately fired Nazre.) Another male partner told Vassallo she should be flattered by Nazre’s attention. Another female partner whom Nazre pressured to have sex with him, Trae Vassallo, told an investigator hired by the firm that Nazre was “preying on female partners” and that she was constantly fending off his advances, in just the kind of sexualized atmosphere Ely’s 20-year-old study described. She reports being pressured into a sexual relationship with a male partner, Ajit Nazre. The Kleiner Perkins described by Pao fits this description. Women made partner by “pandering to men,” flirting and behaving in sexual ways in an atmosphere in which one male partner joked that the female associate who would make partner was “the one with the biggest tits.” Women were expected to mix the masculine and the feminine in a very specific way: “the powerful men desired and reinforced expressions of sexuality from their female subordinates,” notes Ely. ![]() Pao was told, in a friendly way, that “ you had to be one of the guys to be successful.” Yet women walk a fine line: “There’s nothing men hate more-especially men in power-than a woman who is like a man,” noted another. Much of what Pao describes is something quite different: an atmosphere straight from the blatant bias playbook.īlatant bias is the kind of gender bias commonplace in the 1990s, when there’s an intensely masculine work culture where women are under pressure to be “one of the guys.” Robin Ely’s 1995 study of law firms found that “the women who are going to become partner here are going to be women who act pretty much like men,” to quote one woman interviewed. ![]() Kleiner Perkins is not just about the kind of subtle stereotyping that’s common at many large tech companies. That’s three out of the four basic patterns of subtle bias I’ve identified in my research on professional women. Moreover, she claims, she was denied opportunities because she was pregnant. The evidence presented so far also suggests that women at the firm do walk a tightrope between being seen as too passive and too harsh. And that women were asked to do the “office housework”-such as being asked to take notes at a meeting, when taking notes precluded them from meaningful participation. Pao’s attorney has argued that women were held to different standards from men. The high-profile gender discrimination lawsuit by Ellen Pao against the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins is being discussed as if it’s emblematic of gender bias in tech.
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