Equality Archives - Page 2 of 10

The oldest profession in the world is alive and well in Silicon Valley

Of course we've all been agog at the Ellen Pao trial. Silicon Valley loves nothing more than to talk about itself. The self-obsession goes hand in hand with ego, intellect and ambition. But an unexpected side effect of the discussion of the blow-by-blow of the trial is now, for a while, everyone will be looking for covert sexism. And nowhere better to find it than cougar night at the Rosewood hotel in Menlo Park. This is not a new phenomenon. I blogged about it in 2011 after spending an amused [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-12T18:37:29-08:00April 1, 2015|Equality|2 Comments

Technology, Women and Equity at the 2014 Grace Hopper Conference

Guest post from YY Lee, my business partner and COO of FirstRain I am proud of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (@ghc) community this week for raising important issues and grappling with uncomfortable, difficult-to-solve questions. I appreciate FirstRain’s own Penny Herscher (@pennyherscher) for putting herself out there to moderate the Male Allies Panel, despite the concerns going-in about how to constructively include that perspective. The fiery reaction to that session raised the level of engagement around deep-seated systemic equity issues in our industry in a way that [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-03T02:44:24-08:00October 11, 2014|Equality|0 Comments

Don’t Cat Call to Me – I’m Too Busy!

Really, what are you thinking? I was walking to work this morning when a man in a car calls out to me "Hey Baby, what are you doing? Nice dress! Hey come over and talk to me. I'll give you a ride..." and more. I shake him off, try to ignore him, but he's rolling down his other window, leaning across, calling out what he obviously thinks are smart and endearing comments about my person. It's ridiculous, and I am sure ineffective 99.9999% of the time, unless responding to calls [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T09:47:57-08:00October 1, 2014|Equality|0 Comments

How Smith College Turned Christine Lagarde’s Cancellation Into a Win for Women’s Voices

Ruth Simmons gave a brilliant, beautiful and moving commencement address at Smith College, MA on Sunday. Emotional to be back at Smith where she was previously president, she spoke to the students about free speech, about the importance of "tak[ing] good care of your voice" and the power of the opinions of people who disagree with you. Her perspective is one of a child growing up in the South: "My coming of age was marred by the wide acceptance of the violent suppression of speech," she said. "No forums of [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-03T02:44:25-08:00May 20, 2014|Equality|0 Comments

Would you be intimidated being alone in a crowded room?

Imagine you are a successful business professional. You are invited to many events after work to network, create useful contacts and learn about new areas impacting your work. You go to such an event one evening and, as you walk into the room, you quickly scan to see if there is anyone there like you. And event, after event, you are the only one of your kind in the room. There may be 100 people in the room and you are still the only one. This is the experience of [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-12T18:40:53-08:00April 24, 2014|Equality|0 Comments

Three things you can do to hire women and change your company forever

Posted in the Huffington Post Our world is changing very fast, and the role of women is changing fast with it -- and, mostly, for the positive. We have more women in power, more women in the workforce, more women in control of their lives but there still aren't representative numbers of women at the top of companies. And yet, we now know that diverse teams make better decisions. We know women make 85 percent of consumer buying decisions, and so, if you sell anything to them, you probably want [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T09:50:00-08:00February 19, 2014|Equality, Leadership|0 Comments

Hey Mr Waiter! Don’t insult me at the table

Insult can be about blindness as much as it can be overt. Case #1: My husband and I are at a lovely restaurant. The wine list is put in front of him. He hands me the wine list, I chose a wine, and I tell the waiter when he comes. The waiter returns with the unopened wine, opens it and asks my husband if he wants to taste it. Bret has seen this movie before. He usually smiles at the waiter and says "My wife ordered the wine, if you [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-12T18:41:49-08:00February 18, 2014|Equality|0 Comments

Someone should have protected Tom Perkins

Yes, Tom Perkins' letter to the WSJ was shameful, but now, 48 hours later, I too feel shame. If you missed it you can read his letter to the Journal here, and then his follow up here. The Twittersphere lit up, everyone piled on (including me) that his comments were stupid, and the rants of a now irrelevant old man, and tone deaf about the gap between the 1% and the 99%, and an insult to the Jews, venture capital etc. etc. But this morning I am wondering how did [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T09:50:20-08:00January 27, 2014|Equality|0 Comments

A living example of how the “princess romance” theme can backfire

If you were raised on Disney princess movies, and Hollywood musicals, as I was, you were probably brainwashed into thinking that to be happy you had to find a man. Even a few years ago in Sex and the City, the girls were all pursuing relationships as their ultimate goal. Most movies don't pass the Bechdel test because what few women are in the movie have only one topic of conversation—relationships with men. But this weekend I was reminded of how very toxic this brainwashing can be. My mother-in-law is [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T09:50:39-08:00January 13, 2014|Equality|0 Comments

Dressing like a woman — not a man

A year ago at Dreamforce 2012 I was delighted to see women dressing as women - and posted on the trend. And this year in 2013 we had both Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Meyer on stage with Marc Benioff looking like women! Fashionable, professional but very feminine. Why do I care? Well here is my employee badge from Synopsys in 1990. Thirty years old, very, very much in the minority, and I decided to poke fun at the system and the dress code (I always was a bit of a [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T09:51:15-08:00November 25, 2013|Equality|0 Comments