By Jeff Elder
A closely watched trial about sex discrimination in Silicon
Valley was thrown into disarray in its closing moments late Friday,
when a judge said jurors did not reach the required majority on one
count.
Former partner Ellen Pao had sued venture-capital firm Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers, claiming the firm discriminated
against her and retaliated, including firing her, after she
complained.
Jurors had told San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn
that they had found in favor of Kleiner Perkins on all four
counts.
The judge had told them that nine of the 12 jurors needed to
agree for a verdict on each count. But when Judge Kahn polled the
jurors individually, he found that the vote on the final count,
alleging that Kleiner Perkins fired Ms. Pao in retaliation, was
8-4.
The six-man, six-woman jury deliberated for three days, after a
four-week trial. Jurors had to work through 14 pages of
instructions and a seven-page verdict form with 30 questions to
formulate its verdict on two charges of gender discrimination and
two charges of retaliation.
Ms. Pao, who worked at Kleiner Perkins from 2005 to 2012,
claimed the firm assigned her menial tasks, denied her promotions,
and then retaliated, including firing her, after she complained
about her treatment. Kleiner Perkins said Ms. Pao didn't advance
because of her own shortcomings and misrepresented key incidents at
the firm.
The trial drew international attention because of the claim that
one of oldest and best-known firms in Silicon Valley, an early
backer of companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc., had
stymied the career of a promising woman. It followed other recent
allegations of unfair treatment at other tech firms, and reports
showing few women in management or high-prestige tech jobs at
companies like Google, Yahoo Inc., Apple Inc. and others.
Dating app Tinder in September settled a sexual-harassment suit
by a former executive who claimed the company's co-founders
subjected her to "horrendously sexist, racist and otherwise
inappropriate comments." Women in the videogame industry have been
threatened and attacked online, in a continuing affair known as
Gamergate.
At Google, women fill 48% of non-tech jobs, such as marketing
and human resources, but just 17% of the software engineering,
database analysis and other tech jobs.
Nationally, women's representation in those high-paying tech
jobs has declined in the past 25 years, according to the U.S.
Census. Just over a quarter of computer professionals are women,
down from 34% in 1990.
In venture capital, the numbers are even lower. The share of
women partners in venture-capital firms declined to 6% in 2014,
from 10% in 1999, according to a study from Babson College.
The trial offered titillating details of real and attempted
romantic trysts in parking lots and hotel hallways. Ms. Pao was
involved in a consensual affair with a married Kleiner Perkins
partner for a time, and claimed that he retaliated against her
after she ended the affair.
Other testimony about behavior at the firm seemed to describe
another era, before antidiscrimination laws and workplace
sensitivity training. Ms. Pao says a Kleiner Perkins partner
discussed porn stars and the Playboy mansion on a partner's private
jet. A married partner gave Ms. Pao a book of erotic poetry on
Valentine's Day. Another male partner asked her to take notes at a
meeting. When an investigator hired by Kleiner Perkins asked for
the firm's antidiscrimination policy, executives couldn't produce
it.
Write to Jeff Elder at jeff.elder@wsj.com
Access Investor Kit for Google, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US38259P5089
Access Investor Kit for Google, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US38259P7069
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires