The Female Tech Community Responds To 'Donglegate'

There is a big controversy raging in the tech world after Adria Richards, a former developer evangelist for email delivery company SendGrid, was offended at a conference in Silicon Valley.

Richards was sitting in front of two men who were making jokes about "dongles" and "forking". She stood up, took a photo of the men, and sent it out to her 10,000 Twitter followers.

This resulted in one of the guys, a mobile engineer at Play Haven, getting fired from his job and subsequently Richards getting fired from her job as well. It may seem like a harsh punishment, but in the male-dominated world of tech, an accusation of sexist behavior is serious.

The bizarre situation has divided the tech community. Here's a sample of some reactions:

• SendGrid, Richards' former employer issued a statement about her termination. SendGrid said that Richards had a right to stand up for herself when she felt offended, but the way she handled it was inappropriate and divided a community that she was supposed to be working to unite.

• Amanda Blum a female figure in the tech community shared her thoughts on the situation. She defined the entire fiasco as a loss for everyone and pointed out that Richards, "is not an easy person [to work with]". Blum suggests that Richards doesn't have a positive track record in the tech community.

• A female developer who preferred to remain anonymous told Business Insider, "[Adrina] doesn't represent my views, a dongle joke wouldn't offend me. I'd probably think it was funny, in fact I probably would have found it funny 10 years ago before I came into this industry. I want someone who is reasonable, measured and creative in how they interact with difficult situations (not that I think this situation was). It makes me suspect that she is just as reactionary as the idiots who are now threatening her on Twitter."

• Rachel Sklar, co-founder of Change The Ratio, a company that increases visibility and opportunity for women in tech and new media told Business Insider, "Adria doesn't represent all women in tech. But the hateful reaction to her has been breathtaking, and frightening. You cannot brush off repeated threats of rape. And honestly, check out a comments section on this stuff once in a while. (I don't plan on checking out this one.) It's when things blow up that it becomes impossible not to notice that women get treated scarily, threateningly and very specifically worse. And THAT's what SendGrid capitulated to. Their actions have been cowardly and intellectually dishonest. They could learn something from the employee they just cut loose."

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