From the scandals involving gender bias at Uber and Google and the resignations of two prominent investors as a result of accusations of sexual harassment, the last few months have seen an intense focus about how issues of workplace sexism and discrimination are addressed, especially in Silicon Valley.
The sexism at play in the tech industry can manifest in a number of ways. It doesn’t have to lead to the downfall of a big name CEO such as Travis Kalanick to be a pernicious force. But there are just as many ways that female founders are fighting back.
Last year, two Los Angeles artists, Penelope Gazin and Kate Dwyer, started a company called Witchsy, an online marketplace for art with an odd, unconventional sensibility. The pair bootstrapped the venture and brought in $200,000 in sales, with 80 percent of the transactions going back to the creator of the item that was purchased. But they found themselves running into the same roadblock over and over again.
Gazin and Dwyer told Fast Company about some of what they experienced as they worked to grow their company — for example, a developer attempted to delete everything he had worked on for them after Gazin wouldn’t go out with him. While most of the time they weren’t up against outright sabotage, the reception they got to their questions was often condescending or demeaning.
While Silicon Valley’s tech scene is often the most talked about in the state of California, Los Angeles shouldn’t be dismissed, especially in the discussion about pay parity.
LiveStories, a hub for civic data, recently released its Los Angeles Gender Pay Gap report, which found that the gap for the tech community in particular is widening. Between 2006 and 2010, women in these occupations were paid 97 cents on the dollar, but as of 2015, women were making 82 cents on the dollar, which is worse than the national average of 84 cents on the dollar. According to the research, no other field in L.A. has become so much less equitable that quickly.
While we here at Entrepreneur are not necessarily advocating that you create an imaginary business partner — for whatever aim you might have in mind — what the Witchsy co-founders experienced is a damning illustration of how despite increased discussion around the harm of unfair treatment of women in the workplace, way more still needs to be done.