Woman in gender bias suit says she loved colleague

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By SUDHIN THANAWALA

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A woman alleging gender bias at a prestigious Silicon Valley venture capital firm testified that she couldn't turn back the advances of a male co-worker with whom she'd later have an affair because of her injuries from an accident on a trip to Germany.

"I got hit by a cab and then he tried to hit on me," said plaintiff Ellen Pao, who is suing Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in a high-stakes, high-profile case that has much of the tech world watching.

Pao said under questioning Tuesday from defense attorney Lynne Hermle that she did not reject the initial romantic advances of the man. She said she would later tell the man she loved him and even discussed having children with him.

On Wednesday she returns to the stand for more cross-examination and possible questions from jurors.

FULL story at link.



FILE - In this Feb. 24, 2015, file photo, Ellen Pao, right, leaves the Civic Center Courthouse along with her attorney, Therese Lawless, left, during a lunch break in her trial in San Francisco. Plaintiff Pao testified Monday, March 9, 2015, that female employees were treated disrespectfully at the firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and some were not even invited, when the company held a series of events. Pao also told the jury at the civil trial that she complained to management about the atmosphere at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers after learning a female colleague had complained about alleged sexual harassment. The investigator hired by the firm to investigate Pao's complaint concluded there was no gender discrimination at the firm. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150311/us--silicon_valley-sexual_discrimination-b247301ec1.html

[KamaAina]

1. This is turning into the tech world's version of the OJ trial

The cat box liner, I mean San Jose Mercury News , has been running breathless front-page updates daily!

[Xithras]

2. Kleiner Perkins is like the Goldman Sachs of the tech world.

These are the money guys behind some of the biggest economic names in the country, and certainly some of the most powerful names in the Silicon Valley. Amazon, Google, EA, Intuit, Symantec, Sun Microsystems, Verisign, Zynga, and literally hundreds of other companies were funded or are partially owned by these guys. Al Gore sits on their board. Jon Doerr, their chairman, was on Obama's economic recovery board during the financial crisis. I once heard them described as the "most powerful tech company in the world that nobody has ever heard of".

Pao is the CEO of Reddit, one of the the largest and most influential community websites in existence. She was formerly a junior partner at KPCB, which made her one of the most powerful women in the Silicon Valley. Having someone of her caliber bring a suit like this, along with the accusations that the firm reflected Silicon Valley culture by locking women out of leadership roles and systematically underpaying them, is HUGE. If KPCB loses, it will not only cost them millions and force them to change, but it may force them to pay more attention to the brogrammer-friendly environments that exist in many of the companies they fund and oversee. The suit has the possibility of fundamentally changing a problematic aspect of Silicon Valley culture.