"Oh please. Occasionally running into a rude man? "
The point was not there is an occasional rude man, the point is that there is a reoccurring theme of inappropriate discrimination based on gender. Of course there are going to be rude men. As you pointed out, there are rude people everywhere. But what if that rude person is only rude in certain situations to a certain type of person--that makes a difference, no?
"As a woman genuinely in tech..." I think that is a bit pompous--under your definition is groupon tech? All they do is glorified coupons, not very techy under your standards yet google, a tech company, wanted to acquire them...
"Take it personally and you're just telling yourself a story. But in reality, it's not about you. The way a person treats you is very rarely about you. It's about them. So ignore them and move on with your dignity intact, and stop telling yourself lies."
Would you tell this to MLK or Harvey Milk? I doubt it. Over simplifying the problem and claiming it's all in these womens' heads isn't going to make it go away.
Let's see -- are we actually comparing legal, systematized repression vs a couple dudes being rude dogs? When, if that dude was a boss and not a potential investor, said rude behavior would in fact be illegal?
Straw man, my friend. They are nothing alike.
I have run into many rude men at bars when attempting to buy drinks. Some have even butted in while I was dancing with another woman. I guess it's time to write an expose entitled "Sexism in the Beer Drinking Industry."
You are oversimplifying this whole debate. It's not just a couple of "rude dogs," and if I supplied you with several stories of discrimination against women by VCs, etc would you still say it's just a couple of rude dogs? How many would it take for you to believe there is a systematic problem here and not just random men being jerks?
Your belief that sexism in tech is not really sexism and just isolated incidents strikes me as very odd. You analogy to men in bars is completely unrelated and completely not analogous. I'm an attorney and a your whole argument about rude behavior being illegal, well, I would like to see that hold up in court. Proving any type of discrimination is very difficult.
Pretty sure that if your boss tells you he's going to spend 30 minutes trying to get you in his bed, that's sexual harassment. Apparently there are "laws designed to protect you from sexual harassment": http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=...
As an attorney, you know that there is an enormous gulf between "what is illegal" and "what will hold up court."
As for it being "systematic" -- how many stories of rude and raunchy VCs would it take? Infinity and beyond!
A thing is not "systematic" unless a bunch of people get together and decide to do it together, intentionally -- and with a process. Otherwise it is merely "widespread" -- just like rude men with poor social skills hitting on women is wide spread in many, many situations that do not involve VC.
The point was not there is an occasional rude man, the point is that there is a reoccurring theme of inappropriate discrimination based on gender. Of course there are going to be rude men. As you pointed out, there are rude people everywhere. But what if that rude person is only rude in certain situations to a certain type of person--that makes a difference, no?
"As a woman genuinely in tech..." I think that is a bit pompous--under your definition is groupon tech? All they do is glorified coupons, not very techy under your standards yet google, a tech company, wanted to acquire them...
"Take it personally and you're just telling yourself a story. But in reality, it's not about you. The way a person treats you is very rarely about you. It's about them. So ignore them and move on with your dignity intact, and stop telling yourself lies."
Would you tell this to MLK or Harvey Milk? I doubt it. Over simplifying the problem and claiming it's all in these womens' heads isn't going to make it go away.