In 2012, Ellen Pao, filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, Kleiner Perkins, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Pao alleged that she was hired as a junior partner and promised opportunities to move forward. Instead, she was repeatedly passed over for promotion and was on the receiving end of retaliation within the company, because she was vocal in her protest. Pao was ultimately fired as a result.

In 2012, Ellen Pao, filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, Kleiner Perkins, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Pao alleged that she was hired as a junior partner and promised opportunities to move forward. Instead, she was repeatedly passed over for promotion and was on the receiving end of retaliation within the company, because she was vocal in her protest. Pao was ultimately fired as a result.
During the trial, jurors heard a great deal of colorful, if not discriminatory, language. Pao’s supervisor, John Doerr, stated that Pao had a “female chip on her shoulder.” The New York Times reported that ChiHua Chien, a Kleiner Perkins partner, stated that women should not be invited to a dinner with Vice President Al Gore, because they “kill the buzz.” A senior partner, Ray Lane, joked with a junior partner that Pao should be “flattered” that a male colleague showed up at her hotel room door wearing only a bathrobe.
Pao subsequently wrote in 2015, that in addition to the difficulties of proving discrimination under California law, “I saw how hard it was to win when every potential juror who expressed a belief that sexism exists in tech – a belief that is widely recognized and documented – was not allowed to serve on the jury.”
Pao did not win her case against Kleiner Perkins. She has since become CEO at Reddit’s.
Case Note: Case information adopted from Brown, J. (2016). Inclusion (2 nd ed.). Hartford, CT: Publish Your Purpose Press.
Identify and discuss the various forms of both explicit and implicit discrimination that existed during the recruitment, selection, performance, and/or development stages of Pao’s employee life cycle at Kleiner Perkins and during her lawsuit. Consider both Pao’s allegations and the responses of leaders. See Sweeney and Bothwick, (2016) for stages in the employee life cycle. Additional information about Pao’s case can be found online.
Respond to the case material and assignment guidelines above in a 6 to 8 page, double spaced essay, not including the cover page or list of references. Preface your assignment with the CUC assignment cover sheet; use APA format and style throughout. Provide citations in-text and a list of references for ideas cited through paraphrasing of quotes.