There’s no denying that sexual harassment and discrimination against women are on the rise in some of America’s largest technology corporations. So much so that some of the top executives of these companies are being accused of a number of sexual controversies that they are either forced to leave their position or have been laid off.
Why do you think sexism in the office still continues? A report by Business Insider may have a few explanations as to why men behave so badly towards women as they were able to ask one engineer and explained the situation in Silicon Valley.
The name of the engineer was not disclosed.
Young engineers are given way too much money
The engineer said that male engineers are given a ton of money just for signing with technology companies. Imagine a 21-year-old engineer given a $100,000 signing bonus, this gives the engineer bragging rights of sorts and may think to himself, “People should respect me now especially women who ignored me before.”
The $100,000 signing bonus could significantly increase if a tech company is trying to lure an engineer from another firm. The engineer could be offered additional incentives like stock options worth almost one million dollars on top of the ridiculously high salary.
Some companies even give employees alcohol at work and a place to sleep, which pressures employees to spend a large amount of time at the office.
The engineer said that this workplace almost mimics a Frat House.
Only a handful of women are given a position of power
Another reason for this kind of behavior, said the engineer, is that only a few women are given managerial positions. In fact, only 20% are women in senior level at these kinds of companies. In addition, a majority of women in tech companies are working in non-technical departments such as Legal, Human Resources or Finance.
On the other hand, male engineers become managers overtime bringing with them the “frat mentally” that cause them to become aggressive and intimidating in the workplace.
Moreover, male engineers tend to attack each other’s intelligence in a workplace where employees contribute their expertise to projects while others scrutinize their work.
For the past months, more and more women are exposing these kinds of behavior at their workplace and hope that it no longer spread and stop sexism in its tracks.
What do you think are the reasons why women suffer discrimination? Let us know in the comment section below and don’t forget to like and share this article.
