Experts: Sex bias case will embolden women

Former worker lost, but industry looked bad, some say.

— A bitter SAN FRANCISCO legal battle over accusations that a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm demeaned women and held them to a different standard than male colleagues became a flashpoint in the discussion about gender inequity in business.

Though Ellen Pao lost her lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Silicon Valley observers say her case will embolden women in the industry.

“This case has been a real wake-up call for the technology industry in general and the venture capital community in particular,” said Deborah Rhode, a law professor at Stanford University who teaches gender equity law.

The jury of six men and six women rejected all of Pao’s claims against Kleiner Perkins on Friday, finding the firm did not discriminate against her because she is a woman and did not retaliate against her by failing to promote her and then firing her after she filed a sex-discrimination complaint.

In making their case, Pao’s lawyers presented a list of alleged indignities to which their client was subjected: a book of erotic poetry from a partner; being asked to take notes at a meeting; being cut out of emails and meetings by a male colleague with whom she broke off an affair; and talk about pornography.

But the heart of their argument was that Pao was an accomplished junior partner passed over for a promotion and fired because the firm used different standards to judge men and women.

Kleiner Perkins’ attorney, Lynne Hermle, countered that Pao failed as an investor at the company and sued to get a big payout as she was being shown the door. The company used emails and testimony from the firm’s partners to paint Pao as a complainer who twisted facts in her lawsuit and had a history of conflicts with colleagues.

Rhode and other experts say Kleiner Perkins and the venture capital industry did not come out looking good even though they won the case.

“Venture capital firms recognize it’s not appropriate to be out in the streets celebrating,” said Freada Kapor Klein, founder of the Level Playing Field Institute, a nonprofit that aims to boost minority representation in science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Before the Pao trial started, employment statistics released in the past 10 months brought the technology industry’s lack of diversity into focus. Women hold just 15 percent to 20 percent of technology jobs at Google, Apple, Facebook and Yahoo, according to company disclosures.