Letters: Silicon Valley’s ‘jerk quotient’

Re “Sexism at issue in Silicon Valley,” Oct. 24

What The Times doesn’t consider is what I call the “jerk quotient” — and in the technology industry, it is exceptionally high. The only other industry where women can encounter a comparable number of jerks is the banking industry — and look what happened there.

I remember sitting in a Starbucks and eavesdropping on a bunch of Mark Zuckerberg wannabes. Their big idea? A website that was a cross between Facebook and “The X Factor” called “Hofactor,” where men could post comments about how slutty their girlfriends were and vote for the biggest sluts.

They were serious about this. No wonder women don’t want to work in Silicon Valley.

Alice Charles

West Hollywood

Though I am a woman and an electrical engineer, I know about the problems in the tech industry mostly via conversations with men. One founder, MIT-educated and well funded, struggled to nurture his growing user community while also keeping the atmosphere woman-friendly; another actively pulls women into technical conversations.

Others, including the Twitter users who pilloried the start-up founder in the article for his offensive comments about women, are a powerful force.

It isn’t just women who report problems. It’s much more that there’s a problem that has developed as the Silicon Valley start-up culture grew quickly, and that both men and women are now trying to do something about.

Karen E. Robinson

Palo Alto

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