The lawyers taking on Silicon Valley sexism: 'It's far worse than people know'

Ellen Pao recently fought a $16m sexual discrimination suit against her former employer, venture
capitalists Kleiner Perkins. Pao claimed she was passed over for promotion and excluded from meetings
after she accused a senior partner of sexual harassment. Although Pao lost the suit, coverage of the case
shone a bright light on Silicon Valleys gender problem. More legal suits followed, this time against
Facebook and Tesla. The common denominator? The lawyers representing the women: Therese and
Barbara Lawless. For so long, women kept their mouths shut and did their jobs, and put their heads down
because they were so afraid, says Therese, 56, the younger of the pair, But more and more women are
just fed up. In the wake of the Pao case, their phones havent stopped ringing. Ill get women in their 50s
calling me up and saying, I cant put up with it any more, Therese says.

The sisters take turns to lead the conversation. Therese, dressed in a trouser suit and with long,
dark hair, chooses her words carefully. Barbara, 70, who has a softer voice but equally no-nonsense
manner, punctuates Thereses sentences, as if annotating out loud. All of this has been going on for a
long time, Therese says. For ever! Barbara interjects.

At the same time the Ellen Pao case went to court, Lawless & Lawless filed a discrimination suit
against Facebook, over allegations made by project manager Chia Hong, who claimed she faced gender
and racial discrimination and harassment while working at the company. She alleged that her opinions
were belittled in group meetings, and that a supervisor asked her why she didnt just stay at home and
look after her child. Eventually, after a mediation session between the parties, Hong dropped the case;
Therese says the matter has been resolved, but cant say whether there was a settlement.

In February, the Lawless sisters squared up to Elon Musks electric vehicle company, Tesla, on
behalf of 33-year-old engineer AJ Vandermeyden. She accused the company of ignoring her complaints of
pervasive harassment from men on the factory floor, including inappropriate language, whistling and
catcalls. Vandermeyden also alleged they paid her a lower salary than men doing the same work,
promoted less qualified men over her, and punished her for being a whistleblower eventually firing her
after she spoke about her experience to the Guardian. Tesla rejected the allegations; the case is ongoing.

But these high-profile cases represent just a small proportion of the Lawless sisters workload.
More than 95% of their gender discrimination and harassment cases are settled behind closed doors and
involve non-disclosure agreements. If companies are going to pay X amount of dollars, the sisters
website lists settlements of between $450,000 and $8m, then, as part of the deal, our lips are sealed,
Therese says. Its far worse than people know. People would be appalled at some of the behaviour that
goes on at the workplace.

Therese and Barbara, originally from Buffalo, New York, grew up as two of 12 siblings: six girls,
six boys. It was great crazy, but really fun, Barbara says. She was the second child, born 14 years
before Therese, the ninth. It could be chaotic, Therese adds, but our mother was very organised I
always likened her job to running a small business. Law is in the Lawless family blood. Their father,
William, a liberal who believed in educating girls and boys equally, was a judge, lawyer, law school dean
and professor. Both Barbara and Therese married lawyers (Barbara has since remarried an accountant),
and they have two siblings, two nieces and a nephew in the field. Their family name is a frequent
conversation starter. Its Irish, Therese explains. We dont know what our ancestors did, but were trying
to make up for it.

When Barbara, who graduated from law school in 1972, started out, women represented less
than 10% of all law graduates. She would frequently find herself the only woman in a room of 100 lawyers.
By the time Therese graduated in the late 1980s, it was less of a boys club, at least for entry-level
lawyers. However, among trial lawyers and in leadership positions, the representation of women was
and still is very low.

Barbara tells me about an incident in 1975, when she attended a sentencing hearing while
pregnant. The judge, a friend of her father, took one look at her and said, as Barbara recounts, You are in
a family way go back and send your business partner down to make this argument. I couldnt believe it,
but he must have been 75 years old and was generally a nice man. Still, I thought, This is what we are
dealing with. She adds that this was at around the same time that schoolteachers were being forced into
unpaid maternity leave in around the fifth month of pregnancy, over fears that it was dangerous for the
mother and child, and distracting to students.

In 1988, Therese found herself in the type of large corporate law firm she had pledged to avoid.
She stuck it out for nine months, until she found herself working on a case that was so repugnant she
couldnt take it any more. Two teachers had been fired from a private school for allowing students to create
a poster about Aids, complete with a container of condoms too much for the Catholic community in
Boston. I was supposed to represent the school, she recalls, but I picked up the phone to Barbara and
said, When can I come?
Fought to use physical force to try to defeat another person or group

Example there were children fighting in the playground

Suit a problem taken to a law court by an ordinary person or an organization rather than the police in order
to obtain a legal decision

Example he brought a 12$ million libel suit against the newspaper, claiming his reputation had been
damaged

passed over to ignore or not give attention to someone or something

Example the woman alleges that her employers passed her over for promotion because she was pregnant

Faced to accept that something unpleasant is true and start to deal with the situation

Example we have to face facts here- we simply dont have enough money

Alleged said or thought by some people to be the stated bad or illegal thing, although you have no proof

Example It took 15 years for the alleged criminals

Belittled to make a person or an action seem as if it or they are not important

Example though she had spent hours fixing the computer, he belittled her efforts

squared up to prepare to fight, compete or argue with someone

Example the players squared up to each and started shouting

Pervasive present or noticeable in every part of a thing or place

Example reforms are being undermined by the all pervasive corruption in the country

whistleblower a person who tells someone in authority about sth illegal that is happening, especially in a
government department or a company

non-disclosure the act of making sth known or the fact that is made known

Example any public disclosure of this information would be very damaging to the company

Sealed close

Example the teacher opened the sealed envelope containing the exam papers

Siblings a brother or sister

Example I have four siblings: three brothers and a sister

Dean an official of high rank in a college or university who is responsible for the organization of a
department or departments

Example she is the new dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences

stuck it out to come forward from the rest of your body, or to make part of your body do this

Example I wish my stomach didnt stick out so much

 In one particularly egregious case, a company accused of sexual harassment hired
psychologists to assess the emotional distress of the victim during the pre-trial phase, and discovered that
shed had two abortions more than two decades earlier. They tried to argue that her current emotional
distress was impacted by the abortions rather than the harassment, Therese says. That was a little dirty.
She responded by persuading the judge to let her interview the jurors to screen out those with strong
negative beliefs about abortion.

Then theres the cultural bias that many people still have when talking about gender. I think
misogyny is so deeply ingrained in our culture that even women perpetuate it, Therese says. We had a
lot of female jurors who were willing to accept what were in my opinion simply untrue explanations as to
why things happened. Several witnesses described Pao as having sharp elbows and being prickly
and competitive. Men exhibiting the same type of ambition and wanting to move up in the company are
seen as being assertive, while Pao was perceived as bossy and aggressive, Therese says.

In February this year, Uber engineer Susan Fowler published a detailed account of unwanted
sexual advances and discrimination at the company. She alleged that, when she joined, a manager
immediately propositioned her for sex over the company chat tool, and that a director explained the
shrinking numbers of women in her department by saying the women of Uber just need to step up and
be better engineers.

Last month James Damore, a software engineer at Google, circulated a 10-page memo in which
he argued that there were biological reasons women were less suited to jobs in tech. Even the battle-
hardened Lawless sisters were taken aback by its language. That was so outrageous, Barbara says.
That he could even think that way in this day and age I was shocked. The memo came just months
after the US Department of Labor accused Google of systematically underpaying women, in an
investigation that is still ongoing. More than 60 current and former Google employees are now considering
bringing a class action, alleging sexism and pay disparities against women.

Why does the technology industry have so many issues with discrimination? The Lawless sisters
point to the way it celebrates rule-breakers, and how it frequently blurs the lines between social and
professional lives with long working hours, a lack of structure and human resources (HR) departments,
and office fridges full of free beer. The entrepreneurial personality makes people much bigger risk-takers,
Barbara explains. And that risk-taking can spill over into unwanted sexual advances. They [Silicon
Valleys entrepreneurs] are more blatant and less sophisticated compared with other industries, Barbara
adds, mentioning certain law firms and accounting firms. I really do think they are cowboys.
Egregious often of mistakes, extremely bad

Example It was an egregious error for a statesman to show such ignorancedis

Distress a feeling of extreme worry, sadness, or pain

Example she claimed that the way she had been treated at work had caused her extreme emotional and
psychological distress

Jurors a member of a jury

Bias the action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing
personal opinions to influence your judgment

Example the government has accused the media of bias

ingrained in (of beliefs) so firmly held that they are not likely to change

Example the belief that you should own your house is deeply ingrained in British society

Prickly (of a person) ready to take offense

Example I have learnt how to establish a healthy working rapport with difficult, prickly people with whom I
have precious little in common

Alleged said or thought by some people to be the stated bad or illegal thing, although you have no proof

Example It took 15 years for the alleged criminals

Shrinking move back or away, especially because of fear or disgust

Example she shrank away from him, covering her face

step up to increase the size, amount, or speed of a process that is intended to achieve sth

example the police are stepping up their efforts to fight crime

tech abbreviation for technical or technology

battle-hardened

example

Outrageous shockingly bad or excessive

Example an outrageous act of bribery

Blurs to make the difference between two things less clear, or to make it difficult to see the exact truth
about something

Example this film blurs the line between reality and fantasy

spill over into if an activity or situation spills over, it begins to affect another situation or group of people,
especially in an unpleasant or unwanted way

Example I try not to let my work spill over into my life outside the office

Entrepreneurs someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves seeing a new
oportunity

Example he was one of the entrepreneurs of the 80-s who made their money in property

Blatant very obvious and intentional, when this is a bad thing

Example the whole episode was a blatant attempt to gain publicity

Cul de sac: a street that is closed at one end

Startled: slightly shocked or frightened because of a sudden surprise

Power lines: a thick wire that carries electricity

Hut: a small, simply built house or shelter

Thatched: having the roof covered with dried straw, reeds, etc

Straw: stems or wheat or other grain plants that have been cut and dried

Reed: a tall plant like grass with a hollow stem that grows in or near water

Pond an area of water smaller than a lake, often artificially made

Ragged irregular

Fees registration

Glazed-Mud: wet earth that is soft and sticky

Splotch: to move through water, making soft sounds

Schemes an officially organized plan or system

Jump rope a length of rope used for jumping

Confide in to share your feelings and secrets with someone because you trust them not to tell other people

Founder: to fail because of a particular problem or difficulty

Broom: a brush on the end of a long handle, used for sweeping floors

Sweep: a smooth curving movement

Marble floor a type of very hard rock that has a pattern of lines going through it, feels cold, and can be polished to
become smooth and shiny

Brocade a rich fabric

Clogged: to become blocked with something.

Shanties: small houses, built of pieces of wood, metal and cardboard, where very poor people live, especially on the
edge of a big city

Dal: a Asian dish made of lentils or other pulsespulse(=seeds from certain plants)

Swear somebody to secrecy: to make somebody promise not to tell something to anyone

Gasp: to take a deep breath with your mouth open, especially because you are surprise or in pain

Whim: a sudden wish to do or have something, especially when it is something unusual or unnecessary.

Squeal: to make a long high sound. To speak in a very high voice, especially when you are excited or nervous.

Coarse: rough

Wound up very worried, nervous or angry

Quilt: a decorative cover for a bed made of two layers with soft material between them

Ballast: a layer of stones that makes a strong base on which a road, railway can be built

Weathered: to come safely through a difficult period or experience

Goodness: the quality of being good

Half-lidded: used to describe a persons expression when their eyelids appear large or their eyes are almost closed

Uncolonized: not having large number of something in a particular area.

Sparse: only present in small amounts or numbers and often spread over a large area

Protruded to stick out from or through something

Sparse small in numbers or amount, often spread over a large area

Fleshy having a lot of soft flesh

Rickshaw: a small light vehicle with two wheels used in some Asian countries to carry passengers. The rickshaw is
pulled by somebody walking or riding a bicycle

Grown an adult

Suitor (old fashioned) a man who wants to marry a particular woman

Wobbly: moving in an unsteady way from side to side

Steadied to make something stop shaking or moving; to become calm and controlled; to have a romantic
relationship with one person for a long period

Setbacks: difficulties or problems that delay or prevent something or make a situation worse

Take its toll on somebody: to have a bad effect on somebody, to cause a lot of damage

Snoring to breathe in a very noisy way while you are sleeping

Bent down leaned

Embolden: to make somebody feel more confident

Machine- made: made by a machine

Wager(old fashioned or formal) an arrangement to risk money on the result of a particular event

Slapping on to put or spread a substance over a surface very quickly or roughly

Sari: a long piece of cloth that is wrapped around the body and worn as the main piece of clothing by a women in
Asia.

Tinselled: decorated with strips or shiny material like metal

Hennaed to put henna on the hair or skin in order to change its colour

Imam: a religious man who leads the prayers in a mosque

Clamp: a tool for holding things tightly together

Dumbstruck: unable to speak because of surprise

Stiffness: a difficulty in moving because of pain in your muscles; the quality of not being friendly or relaxed; the fact
of being firm and difficult to bend or move

Shabby: in poor condition because they have been used a lot

Jerked make a short sudden movement, or to cause someone or something to do this; to suddenly behave differently
usually by understanding something or becoming active again

Ringlets: a long curl of hair hanging down from somebodys head

Crease: to make lines on cloth, to develop lines

Braided: three or more long pieces of hair twisted together to make a long piece

Deputy: a person who is the next most important person below others and does the persons job when he or she is
away
City clerk: an official in charge of the records of a council, courts etc

Lectern: a stand for holding a book, notes when you are reading, giving a talk

Cue: an action or event that is a signal for somebody to do sth

Hiccupping: a sharp, repeated sound made in the throat, that is caused by a sudden movement of the diaphragm
and that you cant control

Drawstring: a piece of string sewn inside the material at the top of the bad that can be pulled tighter in order to
make the opening smaller