500 Startups partner Elizabeth Yin resigns over McClure situation
axios.com
axios.com
https://www.axios.com/exclusive-dave-mcclure-resigns-as-gene...
https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/03/employee-email-claims-500-...
https://cherylyeoh.com/2017/07/03/shedding-light-on-the-blac...
This is a big series of stories breaking - not sure why it isn't getting much traction on HN today.
I'm even more surprised at the how number of people who are still defending McClure even after all this.
I expected the usual "that can't be the entire story, there must be a detail they aren't telling us", which is a skepticism I can still somewhat understand given today's media landscape.
But even now after the details came out, I am now seeing the "that is a normal behaviour from a heterosexual man" responses. It feels so disheartening to see that these kind of responses not only exist in the industry but we are actually having arguments about it. And I'm a man. Hard to imagine how it would feels for the women in the industry.
That explains why I missed it.
In one of the long Twitter threads relating to this situation more than one person made mention of stories related to women in tech and sexual harassment being flagged off of HN.
A real shame - this issue needs to be confronted head on.
It's disheartening. But is it surprising? Look at the things the dude sitting in 1600 pensylvania ave. is saying and has said about women, maybe sadly it is the unfortunate and sorry state of things today that some men are like this. There has been a lot of clamor for change, probably most of it genuine about making things better for the women in the industry. Do you think things will be considerably better for women in ... say, 10 years? I don't think so. Actually, based on the things I hear in video game voice chat by folks sounding like they're 10-15, the future is scary. And don't be fooled into thinking that this problem is unique to the tech industry (I work in a very huge hospital, the last CEO was forced to resign because there was some situation about him giving his mistress a high paying job, similar things happened to other higher-up staff)
I don't have any good answers as to what would make things better, so I'd be very curious to hear from users here what are possible solutions.
From the perspective of an olde phart who has been around since the 80s, no, I don't think it will get better because my single data point says things have been on a downward trend in about the last 15 years. Yes, I feel that attitudes and behavior have gotten worse, not better, in the last thirty years or so. Not every company, of course not, but I think there is a lot of "new normal" going around (the "brogrammer" being just one aspect).
Solutions? You want to "make things better for women in the industry"? Start by making things better for everyone: the workplace is not a frat house. Maybe ditch the kegerator, for starters. Alcohol is for when I don't want to be serious about what I'm doing. Hell, maybe we ditch the shorts and start wearing long pants to work, even if it's jeans. If I had a good answer, I'd write a book and retire on the royalties. I don't, so I'll grasp at straws, but there's something I can't quite put my finger on that says too much casualness in our work environment spills over to a much more casual attitude about how we deal with our coworkers. And, again I'm just spitballin', a casual attitude toward my female coworkers might very translate to, "hey, baby, nice ass".
Or a response detailing how HN will be revamping the flagging system to prevent its abuse for censorship. But I'm not holding my breath for that one.