Melinda Gates on Tuesday publicly decried the rampant sexism that has been reported throughout Silicon Valley in recent years.
The wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates said she was ‘outraged’ over recent instances of alleged harassment and discrimination against women in the industry.
She even recalled her own personal experience dealing with sexism from the time she started out as one of the first female coders at Microsoft.
‘I experienced it from peers, professors, everyone,’ she told a gathering organized by CNN in New York on Tuesday.
‘It wasn’t as bad inside of Microsoft; I faced it a little bit inside the company but it was just industry-wide.
Melinda Gates on Tuesday publicly decried the rampant sexism that has been reported throughout Silicon Valley in recent years. She is seen above speaking to a gathering in New York on Tuesday
The wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates (seen above with Melinda Gates at New York’s Lincoln Center on Wednesday) said she was ‘outraged’ over recent instances of alleged harassment and discrimination against women in the industry
‘I always knew I had to prove myself,’ she said.
Her remarks were first reported by Yahoo! News.
Melinda Gates joined Microsoft in the late 1980s – shortly after she graduated from college.
It was there that she met her husband, the company’s founder and then-CEO. The couple married in Hawaii in 1994.
Melinda Gates says she was angered by the memo written by a former Google employee, James Damore (above), about supposed biological differences that keep women from succeeding in tech
Since Bill Gates stepped down from running Microsoft, the couple has devoted themselves to philanthropic efforts, helping to raise tens of billions of dollars to fight disease and poverty through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Melinda Gates says that even in her current role as a philanthropist there is still a different set of standards applied to her as opposed to her husband.
‘I still walk in places with Bill and so many people – both men and women – assume he’s the smartest person in the room. And when I open my mouth, they sort of give me this look like “Wow, she has something to say”.’
Last year, Melinda Gates said she would focus her philanthropic efforts specifically toward improving the well-being of girls and women, particularly when it comes to introducing them to the world of technology.
She says that the dearth of women who run venture capital firms that are responsible for fueling the tech boom lies at the root of the problem.
Among the top 100 venture capital firms, just 7 percent of the partners are women, according to TechCrunch.
Meanwhile, just 3 percent of tech start-ups that are owned by women get funded.
Melinda Gates says that once this imbalance is rectified, the situation will improve.
‘Money will move the industry for women,’ she said.
Aside from just talking about the problem, Melinda Gates is also putting her money where her mouth is.
She is investing with Aspect Ventures, a female-founded venture capital firm based in San Francisco.
Melinda Gates says she was angered by the recent scandals that rocked the tech world, most notably the controversial memo written by a Google employee about supposed biological differences that keep women from succeeding in the industry.
Google last month fired the author of the memo, James Damore, after the 10-page document, which was originally written for internal consumption, leaked online and went viral.
Last week, SoFi CEO Mike Cagney (left) resigned after his company was sued by an employee who claims he was fired because he reported instances of sexual harassment. Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick (right) was forced to resign due to his handling of harassment complaints
Last week, the search giant was hit with a lawsuit from three former female employees who claimed they received less pay than their male counterparts even though they did the same work.
Also last week, Mike Cagney, the CEO and co-founder of SoFi, a major financial tech start-up, resigned after his company was sued by a former male employee who claims he was fired because he reported instances of sexual harassment.
Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick stood down earlier this year along amid allegations that the ride-sharing firm had failed to adequately handle sexual harassment and gender discrimination complaints.
Melinda Gates described her reaction to reading about the Google memo.
‘I didn’t know whether to be sad or to be outraged,’ she said.
Kelly Ellis (pictured) is one of the three women who filed a discrimination lawsuit against Google last week. She worked at Google from 2010-2014 and says she was held back from promotion she deserved, unlike male colleagues
Holly Pease (left) worked at Google from 2005-2016 and says that despite network engineer experience, she was kept off high-tech career tracks. Kelli Wisuri (right) says that half of her lower-track sales team were women, while almost all the high-track team were men
‘The sadness came first … the sadness to see that point of view. And the outrage to see that we’re writing about women like that in this day and age.’
She said that her husband was the first to bring the matter to her attention.
‘He said, “You’re not going to believe this.”
‘We were on a trip together and it had come out and he literally left me a post-it note because he was flying off somewhere else.
‘Of course we talked about it on the phone that night. I just couldn’t believe it.’
Despite the spate of bad news, Melinda Gates said there’s room for optimism.
‘I’m outraged with what’s going on but I’m optimistic because we’re finally seeing the transparencies coming forward,’ she said.
‘You’re seeing a cacophony of voices that are speaking about this. Women are naming the truth, not being shamed. You’re finally starting to see some action by the industry.
‘It’s not enough, but it’s the beginning of what will work to start to change the industry.’