
Facebook Sued Alleging Sex Discrimination, Harassment, Other Charges - sinatra
http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/18/facebook-sued-by-former-staffer-alleging-sex-discrimination-harassment-other-charges/?ncid=rss
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sinatra
With all the sex discrimination and harassment charges, I sometimes wonder if
founders get subconsciously influenced that hiring women can increase the risk
of lawsuits to their companies. Not fair, I know! But you aren't thinking
about fairness when it comes to your business that already has too many issues
to take care of.

~~~
ivanca
Yes, and if you hire -for example- black paraplegic dwarfs you are going to
deal with even more discrimination lawsuits.

Of course this isn't like it should be, is just the historical legacy of
homogeneity on communities, is been this way for millions of years so it will
take a lot time to change it.

~~~
emodendroket
If you systematically avoid hiring them you are also subject to lawsuits...

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ivanca
Actually no, because for it to be systematic there must be enough cases to be
noticeable, and also they must pass all aptitude tests, and sometimes that
puts some people in disadvantage: for example if one of the test for a new
position is heavy lifting men will be the majority of the ones being selected,
you can call it discrimination but is the same way choosing only people with
computer degrees is discrimination.

~~~
emodendroket
Maybe with the contrived example the OP offered, but classes like "women" and
"nonwhite people" are pretty large.

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spcoll
The issues of diversity and equality are becoming increasingly harder to
ignore for tech companies of all sizes. This is a great reminder to Facebook
(and others watching) that they should care.

It's an uphill battle, but one day there will be one female engineer for every
male engineer, one female PM for every male PM. And no woman will be afraid to
go and do her job.

We're still so far from this dream...

~~~
beachstartup
> It's an uphill battle, but one day there will be one female engineer for
> every male engineer, one female PM for every male PM. And no woman will be
> afraid to go and do her job.

okay, i'll jump on this grenade.

will there one day also be one male nurse for every female nurse? one male
elementary school teacher for one female elementary school teacher? or one
male social worker for every female one? receptionist? hair stylist?

how about one female oil rig roughneck for every male roughneck? one female
coal miner for every male? how about plumber, or roofer, or underwater welder?
and garbage truck drivers?

what about the female civil engineers? structural engineers? physical plant
engineers? construction foremen? these people build things too, arguably
things even more real-er than stupid smartphone apps.

it's funny, back when programming computers and managing tech projects was
(perceived as) low status work for nerds who didn't fit in anywhere else, i
didn't see much if any hullaballoo over the lack of females in these roles.
now that all of a sudden everyone including celebrities spends their entire
day glued to the internet like a bad crack habit and people are getting rich
off ones and zeroes, it's all of a sudden a real big deal and really super
duper important. like i said, funny.

~~~
emodendroket
> it's funny, back when programming computers and managing tech projects was
> (perceived as) low status work for nerds who didn't fit in anywhere else, i
> didn't see much if any hullaballoo over the lack of females in these roles.
> now that all of a sudden everyone including celebrities spends their entire
> day glued to the internet like a bad crack habit and people are getting rich
> off ones and zeroes, it's all of a sudden a real big deal and really super
> duper important. like i said, funny.

I think you're lacking a bit of perspective here. At first, when it was
considered routine, rote work, it was mostly women who were programmers (you
can find contemporaneous articles saying it's appropriate work for women
because programming is basically like preparing a dinner). It was only as
companies started to realize the importance and difficulty of the work that
women were largely driven out.

~~~
exstudent2
Women were not "driven out". The job requirements changed. What you're
referring to as programming was more what we would call data entry now.

~~~
DanBC
When she does it it's data entry; when he does it it's programming?

The blatant unrepentant sexism in this thread, not just you but a bunch of
other people, is disturbing.

~~~
exstudent2
No, the male programmers back then were doing data entry too. It mainly has to
do with the transition from punch cards to digital storage. A "programmer" was
someone who entered a program or data into a computer. The definition of the
role changed as computers did.

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danso
> _The suit also alleges that Hong was told that she was not integrated into
> her team at work “because she looks different and talks differently than
> other team members” and was subsequently replaced “by a less qualified, less
> experienced Indian male.”_

Uh, what does her replacement being Indian have to do with anything? Unless
the implication is that most/many of the other team members are also Indian?
While it's not a stretch to believe that an employee would experience
discrimination for being one of the relatively few women at a tech
company...are there really that few Asian/ethnically Chinese employees at
Facebook? Or perhaps just in her department?

~~~
the-dude
Because Anil Wilson is of Indian ancestry. She claims the group thought she
did not fit in and she was replaced with someone who did. Also, see my comment
below.

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itsbits
"The discrimination included, but was not limited to, plaintiff being
belittled at work and asked why she did not just stay home and take care of
her children; being admonished when she exercised her right under company
policy to take time off to visit her child at school; being ordered to
organize parties and serve drinks to male colleagues, which was not a part of
her job description and not something that was requested of males with whom
she worked; and being replaced by a less qualified, less experienced male."

1) Don't think any company will ever do this 2) She realised this after she
got replaced?

Edit: why am I getting downvotes here? People need to explain before
downvoting..

~~~
kelukelugames
INAL,

A lawyer told me even if you have a legitimate case then you still try to tack
on as much extra shit as possible.

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the-dude
I can't find any info on the person being sued, but his firstname suggest
Indian ancestry. So there seems to be this case, Ellen Pao's and Vic Gundotra
at Google? Coincidence?

~~~
discodave
Unless you have some hard evidence that Indian men are more sexist than other
men then, yes, coincidence.

~~~
the-dude
I don't have hard evidence, but a parallel story has been unfolding since
about a year about the rampant and brutal rapes in ... India.

~~~
masmullin
I think you might have just accidentally racist there.

Not every male of Indian ancestry is a brutal rapist, nor should every male of
Indian ancestry be singled out as a potential sexist because of brutal rapes
happening in India.

~~~
the-dude
I am not implying anything about every male of Indian ancestry. I am just
pointing out that in the last 3 sexual harassment cases from SV, Indian males
seem to be involved.

~~~
rosser
The last 3 sexual harassment cases _you heard about_. I'd bet real money there
are many more you haven't.

~~~
the-dude
For sure. You seem to imply this would change the balance. But you don't know
either.

