<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:401px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/515363a7ecad04484b000002-506-379/adria-richards-4.jpg?maxX=401&amp;maxY=300" border="0" alt="adria richards" width="401" height="300" /></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/blogumentary/3438332939/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Flickr/Chuckumentary</a><keyword id="1623337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Adria-Richards">Adria Richards</keyword> stirred a debate about <keyword id="6390075" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sexism">sexism</keyword> in technology.</div>Former <keyword id="1623336" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="SendGrid">SendGrid</keyword> developer evangelist Adria Richards has broken her silence.
Last week, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/adria-richards-dongle-and-forking-jokes-2013-3">Richards publicly called out on Twitter</a> two men who were making arguably sexual jokes about dongles and forking at the PyCon tech conference.
That tweet resulted in both one of the men and Richards herself losing their jobs. It also spurred a heated conversation about sexism in the tech industry. 
Since then, Richards has remained pretty quiet, but she <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20130327/fired-sendgrid-developer-evangelist-adria-richards-speaks-out/">recently emailed a statement to AllThingsD</a>. 
Richards says that there is some good to be found in the situation, and discusses how Donglegate "has cast a spotlight" on gender and other deep issues in the world of technology. 
<a href="http://allthingsd.com/20130327/fired-sendgrid-developer-evangelist-adria-richards-speaks-out/">Head on over to AllThingsD to read her full statement &gt;</a>

Fired SendGrid Developer Adria Richards: There's 'Good To Be Found In This Situation'

<img class="float_right" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/4e89fb3aeab8eaab72000009-400-300/screen shot 2011-10-03 at 2.08.03 pm.png" border="0" alt="day in the life rachel sklar" />EDIT NOTE: Earlier <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/adria-richards-dongle-and-forking-jokes-2013-3">we reported on</a> the controversy involving Adria Richards, her employer SendGrid, and her tweet at a conference about two men behind her making what she thought were offensive jokes about "dongles." The story has ignited a firestorm in the <keyword id="6358815" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech">tech</keyword> world, in part because the issue of the ongoing debate about how women are treated in the industry. Activist and entrepreneur Rachel Sklar was kind enough to give us her take on the situation.
You don't have to agree with Adria Richards' actions at PyCon to be appalled by the sorry mess it's become.
SendGrid made a massive mistake here - presumably they hired Adria Richards based on her <a href="http://butyoureagirl.com/about/">record and experience</a>. Presumably they interviewed her. Presumably they knew she had a blog and that it was called, "But You're A Girl" - which presumably they understood to mean she'd be <a href="http://butyoureagirl.com/about/#wit">writing about her experiences being a woman in technology</a> (presumably with a little edge). And presumably they'd <a href="http://amandablumwords.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/3/">done a little research into her methods</a>. They hired her as a developer evangelist which means that they were presumably on board with the perspective from which she'd evangelize. And up until two days ago, <a href="http://schedule.sxsw.com/2013/events/event_IAP2586">they got a lot of goodwill from it</a>. 
Who knows what went on in the minds of SendGrid management. But it seemed like an awfully kneejerk move, a clear attempt at appeasement to the troll armies. And however you may disagree with how Adria handled the incident at PyCon - and there is ample room for disagreement - the reaction against her specifically was wildly disproportionate, explicitly gendered, actively threatening and puts all the blame on her.
PyCon, which responded to her tweet and immediately <a href="http://butyoureagirl.com/14015/forking-and-dongle-jokes-dont-belong-at-tech-conferences/">removed</a> the men in question, has gotten off pretty unscathed. (Perhaps because its <a href="https://us.pycon.org/2013/about/code-of-conduct/">Code of Conduct</a> and <a href="https://us.pycon.org/2013/about/code-of-conduct/harassment-incidents/">Attendee Procedure For Handling Harassment</a> both supported its decision.)(Update: While PyCon did pull the men out of the conference at that time, they were <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/pycon-2013-sexism-dongle-richards">not kicked out</a> of the conference.) <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/20/playhaven-developer-fired-for-making-sexual-jokes-after-sendgrids-developer-evangelist-outs-him-on-twitter/">PlayHaven</a>, which summarily fired its employee, has not received such umbrage. This <a href="http://pastebin.com/uUH3Pw37">demand letter from Anonymous is</a>, shall we say, fairly extreme. 
And yet SendGrid complied, letting Richards go. Company CEO Jim Franklin claimed in a blog post that it was because Richards behaved inappropriately in tweeting the photo and accusation. He drew this distinction: 
"We understand that Adria believed the conduct to be inappropriate and support her right to report the incident to PyCon personnel. To be clear, SendGrid supports the right to report inappropriate behavior, whenever and wherever it occurs. What we do not support was how she reported the conduct."
Fair enough, but that all happened Sunday, and Richards <a href="http://butyoureagirl.com/14015/forking-and-dongle-jokes-dont-belong-at-tech-conferences/">blogged it Monday</a>. Things began swelling Tuesday, but it wasn't until late Wednesday that SendGrid became directly implicated by DDOS attacks. The firing was <a href="http://blog.sendgrid.com/sendgrid-statement/">announced Thursday</a>. So there is something logically inconsistent here. It seems clear that SendGrid and Franklin were aware of Richards' conduct as the situation unfolded, yet the decision to fire her *only* came after the attacks. (And indeed, by Franklin's own admission Richards abided by the PyCon Code of Conduct incident at the time, since he notes that the code was since updated.) 
We live in a world now where everything is tweeted and Instagrammed and tagged and now, God help us, Vined. Calling out grievances over Twitter has become an industry norm. (Just ask any airline.) So on Sunday or Monday, even if SendGrid may have thought it was an extreme way for Adria to have dealt with the situation, it still would have been hard to argue that it was contextually inappropriate. (The PyCon code of conduct affirmed confidentiality for those reporting incidents, not for those being reported.) 
So SendGrid - and Franklin - are being seriously intellectually dishonest here. They fired a female employee for speaking up about feeling uncomfortable within a specific professional environment, in a manner which - like it or not! - was consistent with the rules and regulations of that environment. That's not 'supporting the right to report inappropriate behavior, wherever and whenever it occurs.' That's a warning shot for women not to speak out, pure and simple. 
Because Adria made a judgment call and look how crazily she got burned. Anyone who thinks that women won't think twice about speaking up forcefully about this stuff is kidding themselves. Maybe not in the clear-cut situations, but in those blurry wait-maybe-it's-me-should-I-just-learn-to-take-a-joke?-everyone-else-is-laughing situations that happen so often in rooms dominated by dudes, in an industry that often chides women to just get over the booth babe thing, learn to take a joke, stop complaining. It's really easy to take a big swashbuckling stand on the easy, clear-cut cases. But this is much more nuanced and cumulative - <a href="https://twitter.com/paxdickinson/status/315089286535995392">death</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ChloeAngyal/status/314811984602361856">by</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/rachelsklar/status/314890425246826497">a</a> <a href="http://twitter.yfrog.com/nyzz0cqj">thousand</a> <a href="http://leanin.org/stories/kathryn-finney/">cuts</a>. 
Adria <a href="https://twitter.com/paxdickinson/status/315091614332760064">doesn't represent all women in tech</a> - that is a huge, sprawling, diverse range of people across what is now a massive and diffuse industry. But the hateful reaction to her has been breathtaking, and frightening, and unequivocally gendered. You cannot brush off <a href="http://jezebel.com/5991792/woman-in-tech-tweets-about-sexist-dudes-in-tech-dude-get-fired-internet-meltdown-ensues">repeated threats of rape</a>. 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 <a href="https://twitter.com/JillFilipovic/status/314812095277445120">worse</a>. 
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. 
Rachel Sklar is a writer and social entrepreneur based in New York. She is the co-founder of <a href="http://changetheratio.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Change The Ratio</a>, which increases visibility and opportunity for women in tech &amp; new media, and <a href="http://www.theli.st/" target="_blank">TheLi.st</a>, launching soon with that same mission (supported by the <a href="http://www.knightfoundation.org/" target="_blank">Knight Foundation</a>). A former lawyer who writes about media, politics, culture &amp; technology, she was a founding editor at <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/" target="_blank">Mediaite</a> and the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/" target="_blank">Huffington Post</a>.
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Rachel Sklar: The Firing Of Adria Richards Looks Like Kneejerk Appeasement To The Troll Armies

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/51599e1cecad04e916000008-620-445/jim-franklin-sendgrid.jpg?maxX=400&amp;maxY=300" border="0" alt="Jim Franklin SendGrid" width="400" height="300" /></div>Business Insider</div>When <keyword id="1623336" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="SendGrid">SendGrid</keyword> landed itself on the wrong side of a debate about <keyword id="6390075" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sexism">sexism</keyword> in the tech industry, I was shocked.
I live in Colorado and know the folks at SendGrid. SendGrid is the anchor of Boulder's warm-and-fuzzy startup community, one of the most successful companies to come out of incubator TechStars.
The story goes: A little over a week ago, SendGrid <keyword id="80827" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Fired">fired</keyword> developer evangelist Adria Richards after she tweeted a photo of two men cracking sexual innuendo jokes at the PyCon conference. One of the jokers was fired and the Internet erupted in outrage, spewing vitriol at Richards and launching a DDoS attack on SendGrid.
Then SendGrid fired Richards, the woman who had complained about the sexual jokes.
By firing her, SendGrid came off as a company that wouldn't defend a woman for speaking up against sexist behavior.
It didn't make sense.
SendGrid's CEO Jim Franklin, is a Boulder icon. Boulder is an extremely liberal/progressive city and like most Boulder residents, Franklin is the furthest thing from a sexist neanderthal. His wife has a PhD in science and he's the dad of an eight-year-old girl. He's an advisor to many startups, and liked by everyone.
As a tech company, SendGrid has done its typical fair share for <keyword id="624" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Women">women</keyword>, hiring <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/denisehulce">women for key positions</a>, and sponsoring things like the National Center for Women &amp; Information Technology and LadyCoders Bootcamp.
There's no way this man and this company would have fired a woman for complaining about sexist behavior at a conference.
So I called Franklin and asked him to tell me what happened. He invited me to the SendGrid office on Friday and we had a candid conversation. While he never shared confidential information about Adria Richards, he did guide me to publicly available info that tells the real story, as he sees it.
Richards was fired because she couldn't do the job of Developer Evangelist. She "strongly divided the same community she was supposed to unite," the <a href="http://blog.sendgrid.com/a-difficult-situation/">company flatly explained in a blog post.</a>
But it wasn't the first time she was involved in controversy, SendGrid knew.
Richards is someone who is easily offended in order to turn those offenses into big public dramas, according to tech conference organizer <a href="http://amandablumwords.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/3/">Amanda Blum.</a>
Blum told the story of how Richards grew upset that the word "porn" was used in <a href="http://amandablumwords.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/3/">a joking manner in a conference session</a> write-up. Richards was a speaker at the same conference. Richards used the reference to the word porn to publicaly rail against the conference organizers on her podcast and during her speaking session, Blum says.
On the other hand, Richards isn't above making a public sexual-innuendo joke herself. On March 14, while attending the same PyCon conference where she complained about dongle jokes, she tweeted this:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
@<a href="https://twitter.com/skwashd">skwashd</a> you should put something in your pants next time...like a bunch of socks inside one...large...sock.TSA agent faint
— Adria Richards (@adriarichards) <a href="https://twitter.com/adriarichards/status/312265091791847425">March 14, 2013</a></blockquote>
 
Richards has every right to complain about inappropriate sexual comments at a tech conference. There is a sad sexist subculture at many tech conferences and women everywhere are getting fed up. The way to change it is to speak up.
And she couldn't have known how this would blow up.
But SendGrid, which is a progressive open-minded company, didn't bring this on itself either.

Here's The Real Reason SendGrid Fired The Woman Who Complained About 'Dongle' Jokes

<img class="float_right" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/514c6b706bb3f7bd7f000002-396-297/adria-richards.png?maxX=400&amp;maxY=300" border="0" alt="adria richards" width="400" height="300" />There is a big controversy raging in the <keyword id="6358815" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech">tech</keyword> world after <a href="http://butyoureagirl.com/">Adria Richards</a>, a former developer evangelist for email delivery company SendGrid, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/adria-richards-dongle-and-forking-jokes-2013-3">was offended at a conference in Silicon Valley</a>.
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 <a href="http://www.playhaven.com/">Play Haven</a>, 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: 
<ul>
<li>SendGrid, Richards' former employer <a href="http://blog.sendgrid.com/a-difficult-situation/">issued a statement</a> 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.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://amandablumwords.wordpress.com/">Amanda Blum</a> 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.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>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."</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Rachel Sklar, co-founder of <a href="http://changetheratio.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Change The Ratio</a>, a company that increases visibility and opportunity for women in tech and new media told Business Insider, "Adria <a href="https://twitter.com/paxdickinson/status/315091614332760064">doesn't represent all women in tech</a>. But the hateful reaction to her has been breathtaking, and frightening. You cannot brush off <a href="http://jezebel.com/5991792/woman-in-tech-tweets-about-sexist-dudes-in-tech-dude-get-fired-internet-meltdown-ensues">repeated threats of rape</a>. 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 <a href="https://twitter.com/JillFilipovic/status/314812095277445120">worse</a>. 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." </li>
</ul>
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The Female Tech Community Responds To 'Donglegate'

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:402px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/514a27e06bb3f7d02a000005-502-586/screen shot 2013-03-20 at 5.18.43 pm.png?maxX=402&amp;maxY=469" border="0" alt="adriana richards tweet photo" width="402" height="469" /></div><a href="http://butyoureagirl.com/14015/forking-and-dongle-jokes-dont-belong-at-tech-conferences/">ButYoureAGirl</a></div>The world of <keyword id="6358815" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech">tech</keyword> was rattled this week when a quickly-dashed-off tweet alleging crude, sexist jokes resulted in two people losing their jobs.
Earlier this week at the <a href="https://us.pycon.org/2013/">PyCon conference</a> (the largest annual gathering for developers using the open-source Python programming language), a woman named <a href="http://butyoureagirl.com/14015/forking-and-dongle-jokes-dont-belong-at-tech-conferences/">Adria Richards</a> overheard a joke between two men sitting behind her during a crowded presentation.
Richards was offended and took a picture of the two men who were making jokes. She tweeted, "Not cool. Jokes about forking repo's in a sexual way and "big" dongles. Right behind me #pycon." She also attached a photo of the two people making the jokes.
Richards worked for SendGrid, an email delivery company, as a developer evangelist. She had 10,000 Twitter followers.
Because there are so few women in tech, accusations of sexist jokes can be damaging. Her tweet led to one of the people in the photo losing his job.
Internet communities <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/">Hacker News</a>, <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/">Reddit</a>, and even Anonymous all became involved in the situation, which resulted in an online discussion addressing the tension between the "freewheeling boys-will-be-boys atmosphere" that has traditionally existed in technology and a modern politically correct atmosphere.
For those of you who have never heard these terms, a dongle is a small piece of hardware that attaches to a computer, TV, or other electronic device and enables additional functions such as copy protection, audio, video, games, data, or other services that are only available when it is attached.
Forking as it relates to software is defined when developers take a copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software.
With all the attention, SendGrid found itself under attack, and it ended up firing Richards.
In a statement, <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/21/breaking-adria-richards-fired-by-sendgrid-for-outting-developers-on-twitter/">SendGrid said</a>, "Effective immediately, SendGrid has terminated the employment of Adria Richards. While we generally are sensitive and confidential with respect to employee matters, the situation has taken on a public nature. We have taken action that we believe is in the overall best interests of SendGrid, its employees, and our customers. As we continue to process the vast amount of information, we will post something more comprehensive."
We reached out to Richards for comment but have not heard back yet. She <a href="http://butyoureagirl.com/blog/">explained herself on her blog</a>. Basically, she felt fed up after hearing their jokes and decided to do something about it.
A person who says he's the guy who was fired <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5398681">left a comment on Hacker News</a> on the situation, saying:
As a result of the picture she took I was let go from my job today. Which sucks because I have 3 kids and I really liked that job.
She gave me no warning, she smiled while she snapped the pic and sealed my fate. Let this serve as a message to everyone, our actions and words, big or small, can have a serious impact.
The tech community has erupted in discussion with the majority siding with the fired PlayHaven employee. Richards has been threatened on Twitter and other Internet forums but has not tweeted from her account since March 20.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.@<a href="https://twitter.com/adriarichards">adriarichards</a> is currently getting doxed &amp; threatened w/ violence. Search Twitter for her name &amp; report abuse: <a href="http://t.co/GO6Gc1jXoC" title="http://bit.ly/Y82Ntx">bit.ly/Y82Ntx</a>
— Gina Trapani (@ginatrapani) <a href="https://twitter.com/ginatrapani/status/314552254592069632">March 21, 2013</a></blockquote>
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A Joke About Dongles Led To Two People Losing Their Jobs And A Huge Mess For The Tech World

<img class="float_right" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5150bb9b69beddc65d000003-532-399/adria-richards-1.jpg?maxX=400&amp;maxY=300" border="0" alt="adria richards" width="400" height="300" />It's no secret that the tech industry is dominated by men. 
And now, it's also no secret that it can be hard to be a woman in tech.
Last week, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/adria-richards-dongle-and-forking-jokes-2013-3">a joke about dongles and forking at a tech conference led to two people losing their jobs</a>, and sparked a discussion about <keyword id="6390075" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sexism">sexism</keyword> and a lack of women in the tech industry. 
Yesterday, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/being-a-woman-in-tech-2013-3#comments">we covered how Google software engineer Julie Pagano says</a> her experiences in technology have felt like death by 1,000 paper cuts. 
In both cases, many people responded with offensive, sexist comments. These comments, while not representative of the entire tech community by any means, suggest that many of the complaints that women like Richards and Pagano have are entirely valid. 
After we <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/adria-richards-dongle-and-forking-jokes-2013-3">reported the Donglegate story</a>, commenters called Adria Richard's racist, "another low self esteem tech girl," a "C%*#, and a "typical uptight bitch."
Meanwhile, over on Adria Richards' Facebook page <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/21/4132752/thug-mentality-how-two-dick-jokes-exploded-into-ddos-and-death-threats">and elsewhere on the Web</a>, people called her a handful of other derogatory words, with some going as far as making both rape and death threats. 
In Pagano's <a href="http://juliepagano.tumblr.com/post/46206589124/my-experiences-in-tech-death-by-1000-paper-cuts">blog post</a>, she reflected on how her life has been plagued by men patronizing her and dismissing her ideas. While in college, she had to succumb to her engineering professor's sexist jokes. At an old job, those in authority would pat her on the head to dismiss an idea, and make comments when she would wear makeup to work. 
Similar to what happened with Donglegate, the commenters made their opinions known:
<ul>
<li>
"You know what the typical guy would do, he would either suck it up and become better, quit or start his own company," jeffdavis <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/being-a-woman-in-tech-2013-3#ixzz2OZWVqpwh">writes in the comments</a>. "You know what the typical woman would do, she would bitch the first chance she gets...oh wait."
</li>
<li>
"Oh spare me your agony!" David Conley <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/being-a-woman-in-tech-2013-3#ixzz2OZWVqpwh">writes in the comments</a>. "She chose to work in a male-dominated profession. Guys will be guys. Stop taking things so personally. Grow a thicker skin. Have you been touched improperly? Have you been stopped from advancing in your career? Has any male actually said anything to your face that was inappropriate? No....so...grow up! Believe me...if a guy had to work in a female dominated area....the table would be turned. I'm so SICK of these whining women!"
</li>
<li>
"Sounds like another man-hating, pug-fugly lesbian that finds something wrong with absolutely every aspect and facet of a man's existence, and bitches about it to no end," <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/being-a-woman-in-tech-2013-3#ixzz2OZWVqpwh">Filet-O-Fug wrote in the comments</a>. "Doesn't this never ending bitching constitute "creation of a hostile workplace"? It would if roles were reversed. Uggch!" 
</li>
</ul>
Women in tech
First, there's the "<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2012/03/15/solving-the-pipeline-problem-how-to-get-more-women-in-tech/">pipeline problem</a>," meaning that there's a lack of women attaining degrees in engineering and computer science.
"Women in general need to be part of that industry," Linda Miller, co-founder and CEO at mobile communications app deets, tells Business Insider. "It’s a huge industry and it’s growing as you know. You want everybody to be able to participate."
But at the same time, some women <a href="http://juliepagano.tumblr.com/post/46206589124/my-experiences-in-tech-death-by-1000-paper-cuts">are discouraged</a> from pursuing technical degrees. And for those who do end up in the tech industry, it's not always smooth sailing — neither from a personal nor professional standpoint. 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/diversity-in-silicon-valley-2013-3">CNNMoney recently completed a one-and-a-half year long investigation in which they discovered</a> that racial minorities and women are generally underrepresented in management roles. And to make matters worse, certain <keyword id="6357722" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword> tech <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/diversity-in-silicon-valley-2013-3">companies seem to be</a> actively trying to hide how many women and ethnic minorities work for them. 
Priyanka Sharma, who now does product marketing over at Outright, used to work for one of those Silicon Valley tech companies. 
"I actually had circumstances where managers themselves would say, 'Oh, you're just a girl from India,'" Sharma tells Business Insider. 
Sharma ended up leaving that Silicon Valley company, and said her experience at Outright has been a total 180-degree shift. 
That's mostly because there are more women in management positions at Outright, Sharma says. 
"The right kind of mentorship and the right kind of managers is the best way to encourage women," Sharma says. "And a debate about how many women engineers is not as relevant as having women in leadership roles."
Regarding "Donglegate," Sharma says that because the tech industry is so dominated by men, it sounds like people were "so angry that a woman challenged them so much that they tore [Richards] apart."

How Mens' Reactions To 'Donglegate' Show Sexism Exists In The Tech Industry

<a></a><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/4f0b1d6d69bedd017a00000d-400-300/skitched-20120109-120444.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="apple employees" width="480" /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/adriarichards/4556531975/sizes/m/in/photostream/">adria.richards</a>These are not the two employees who are suing <keyword id="6354427" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Apple">Apple</keyword>.</div></div>SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Two former Apple Inc employees have accused the iPhone maker in a lawsuit of subjecting hourly store workers to daily searches while they were off-the-clock, arguing they should be compensated.
The "screenings" or bag searches, designed to discourage theft, are conducted every time sales reps leave the store, including for meal breaks, the plaintiffs alleged in a lawsuit filed July 25 in a San Francisco federal court.
They are seeking unpaid wages, overtime compensation and other penalties related to what they say is a customary practice across Apple's U.S. showrooms. The two plaintiffs said they worked for Apple over a number of years, from California to Georgia and Florida.
Lawsuits from within Apple's ranks are rare, in part because the company is known to command loyalty amongst its workers. In 2011 however, a part-time employee at an Apple store in San Francisco sought to form a union to fight for better wages and benefits and to address what he called unfair practices within the company's showrooms.
Both plaintiffs, who are seeking class-action status on behalf of every current and former Apple hourly employee, estimated in their lawsuit that they often waited in line for roughly 5 to 10 minutes or more before undergoing each check.
It's unclear whether the policy extends beyond Apple's home shores. The company has more 400 stores around the world.
"This work, done primarily for the employer's benefit, is time which Apple hourly employees should be, but are not compensated for, both straight hours and overtime hours worked in excess of 40 hours a week," the lawsuit read.
Apple did not respond to requests for comment.
The case in U.S. Northern District Court is Amanda Frlekin and Dean Pelle et al v Apple Inc, 3:13-cv-03451-EDL
(Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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