Ellen Pao's Gender Discrimination Case

Overview

Ellen Pao’s Gender Discrimination Case (Ellen Pao v. Kleiner Perkins) was a lawsuit filed by American corporate attorney and executive Ellen Pao against her former employer and venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in May 2012. Upon the beginning of the trial in February 2015, the case drew much online attention due to her current position as the interim chief executive officer of Reddit and sparked debates on the issue of gender discrimination in the technology industry.

Background

On May 10th, 2012, Ellen Pao filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), one of the largest most well-known venture capital firms based in Silicon Valley, California. In the lawsuit, Pao claimed that she was placed at a disadvantage in promotion by male junior partner Ajit Nazre with whom she had a romantic affair before it ended badly; the plaintiff alleged workplace retaliation and sought $16 million in lost wages and $144 million in punitive damages. Pao continued to work at the firm until October 1st, when she was allegedly fired from the firm, while KPCB disputed that the termination resulted from the plaintiff declining its offer of a new role in the management.

Notable Developments

Position at Reddit

In 2013, Pao was hired at the social news website Reddit. On November 13th, 2014, it was announced that Pao would become the company’s interim CEO following the resignation of Yishan Wong.

Trial

In late February 2015, the case went to trial at the San Francisco Superior Court before Judge Harold E. Kahn and a jury consisting of six women and six men. On March 27th, the jury announced their verdict in favor of Kleiner Perkins.

#ThankYouEllenPao

Following the verdict announcement, journalist Lisen Stromberg posted a tweet praising Pao in spite of the loss along with the hashtag #ThankYouEllenPao (shown below).

That day, some Twitter users tweeted the hashtag applauding Pao for bringing awareness to the issue of gender discrimination, while others critics used the hashtag to criticize Pao and her defenders (shown below).^[3]^[4]^[5] On March 30th, Business Insider^[6] published an article about the hashtag titled “People on Twitter say #ThankYouEllenPao.” The same day, Breitbart^[7] published an article by staff writer Milo Yiannopoulos, which criticized Pao’s character, calling her a “bullying, vexatious opportunist.”