‘BROTOPIA’ AUTHOR EMILY CHANG TALKS SEXISM AND SILICON VALLEY.
Emily Chang: Tech journalist explores the evolution of Silicon Valley’s sexist work culture
“Bloomberg Technology” anchor and producer Emily Chang is used to hearing eyebrow-raising stories of sexism off-camera, but after eight years of interviewing tech industry leaders, many sources have been reluctant to keep it real once the tape is rolling. That’s changing with her new book, published this week. “Brotopia: Breaking up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley” (Portfolio; 320 pages; $28) blows the lid off a culture that has largely excluded women, including interviews with those ranging from PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg to software engineers and startup founders trying to break through.
The book comes at a time when women are increasingly speaking out about the predatory behavior of powerful men in the workplace — something Chang couldn’t have predicted when she started writing two years ago. Since then, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler’s essay ultimately led to CEO Travis Kalanick’s departure, and entrepreneur Niniane Wang convinced other peers to collectively expose investor Justin Caldbeck’s predatory behavior.
“And then Trump got elected, and I sensed a real change in the willingness of women to come forward,” Chang says about women finally agreeing to talk on the record.
Combining this new openness with historical events in the early days of computer science, Chang illustrates how the tech industry grew to be so unequal — why companies such as Google and Facebook employ barely more than 30 percent women, and why, Chang writes, roughly 3 percent of venture capital-backed companies have a female CEO. This despite research that companies with women in leadership roles make more money, and that in the early days of computer science, programming was largely considered “women’s work.”
The book has already generated controversy with an adapted excerpt published in Vanity Fair. Chang describes Silicon Valley sex parties as a “minefield” for women: They risk not being taken seriously if they go, but fear seeming prudishly uncool if they don’t.
Here’s why that was just the beginning. (Content edited for space and clarity.)
Q: “Brotopia” describes how trolls on platforms such as Twitter and Reddit attack women for speaking out. Are you bracing for impact? A: I know that no good change comes without some people feeling a little uncomfortable, but we aren’t going to solve this problem if we don’t understand it. I thought it was really important to tell this story of how and why women have been left out of the greatest wealth creation in the history of the world. But it’s not too late to change.
Q: The book includes recent news, including the fall of Harvey Weinstein and the success of Stitch Fix founder Katrina Lake (who despite having a hard time raising venture capital ultimately had a successful IPO in November). How did you know the book was done? A: I could have kept writing forever. I had no idea when I started that “women in tech” would become a breaking-news story. It really became a moving target. I ultimately had to give myself a deadline, because no one would read it if I didn’t stop writing it. I knew that now was the time to get it out there.
Q: You’ve been interviewing tech investors and CEOs for years. Did you have an “aha” moment that led to “Brotopia?”
A: In November 2015, I interviewed Mike Moritz, chairman of Sequoia Capital, one of the — if not the — most prominent venture capitalists in the world. At the time, they had no women partners in its U.S. business, and I said, “What’s your responsibility to hire more women?” And he told me, “I think we are completely blind to race, gender, sexuality. We are looking for women very hard, but what we aren’t prepared to do is to lower our standards.”
After that moment, people were horrified. Everywhere I went, people wanted to talk about what he had said, and some people didn’t see anything wrong with what he had said. It made me realize that this issue has been festering for too long and it couldn’t go on any longer.
Q: Some of the issues you discuss, such as the notion of “meritocracy” being a terrible idea, might not be as immediately obvious. A: Meritocracy is impossible to achieve in practice, and it completely ignores the privilege at play for the winner and the larger system of factors working against everyone else. I’ve always been focused on the topic,
and you talk to people on camera and people would complain about how big of a problem it was, but then when you talk to people about it on the record, no one would say what they really felt. Talking about sexism was like the third rail. I was completely baffled at how this incredibly progressive industry could have such grave inequity.
Q: What was the reaction from sources?
A: Some people were incredibly excited and open to talk about it, and some of those people might surprise you, like (venture capitalist) John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins, who agreed wholeheartedly right away, even though he had recently gone through the pain of the (Ellen Pao) trial, because he believes this is an important issue and is continuing to work on diversity at Kleiner. In that situation, they deserved some credit for hiring women like Ellen Pao, but they made the mistake of not building a culture that was hospitable to it.
I have had a relationship with a lot of these people for a long time, so I had the benefit of a certain degree of trust going into it, but there were many sources who took many meetings and phone calls and a lot of encouragement to share their stories. I was careful to only lead them as far as they were willing to go, because it’s a very personal topic and it’s incredibly scary to put yourself out there.
Q: You report on VC-hosted sex parties, where women feel pressured to participate. Although many men extol the virtues of “hacking monogamy,” most weren’t willing to attach their names. A: I interviewed over three dozen people who are intimately familiar with the scene — or feel completely shut out of it. The Bay Area has this tradition of sexual exploration and sex positivity, but unfortunately when women participate in that scene, they are subject to a double standard. And in a lot of ways, it is less about sex and more about power, and it is a power dynamic that is incredibly lopsided. There was one party hosted by (venture capital firm) DFJ, and in that case, it was a corporate party where there were drugs and a cuddle puddle and many people who felt uncomfortable, and one woman was pressured into sexual activity. This was at a corporate event, and to me that is unacceptable. That is not a gray area.
Q: Did you attend any of the parties?
A: I had some opportunities to attend, but ultimately I never went because I thought that would be breaking the confidentiality with which people go into this scene. There is this sort of whisper network, and that is what is damaging to women. I felt as a journalist that was a line I couldn’t cross. I did go to the (strip club) Gold Club. At 11:45 a.m. there is a line out the door on a Friday for lunch, most of the guys looked like tech workers, and it was a complete shock that it was happening in broad daylight in the middle of SoMa. I immediately confessed to one of the women that I was a reporter, and she revealed that she sees men come in groups with their colleagues every day talking about work and sometimes their boss is there, and they are talking about deals, and sometimes they go up to the private rooms together. This rises to the level of a corporate culture.
Q: You make a living by asking other people their opinions. Was it cool to add your voice to the conversation? A: It’s not in my nature as a journalist to express my opinion, but I did think that after pooling this research together and talking to hundreds of people, this was a good opportunity to put my stake in the ground and say where I stand, which is that this has gone on for far too long. Silicon Valley is controlling what we see, and what we read, how we shop and how we relate to the world. This is not just tech’s problem; this is everyone’s problem.
Q: What is your goal with this book? A: I hope it causes people to re-examine their behavior. We need to stop tolerating and enabling bad behavior, and we need to expand our idea of who can be good at this job. It’s not just for “antisocial white male programmers.” We need people of all backgrounds making these products because people everywhere are using them. Changes need to happen from the top.