Katie Benner, Columnist

Silicon Valley's HR Problem

If being on the "team" of a Silicon Valley tech company or venture-capital firm means giving up basic respect and safety, no wonder so few women want to join.

March 12, 2015 at 11:00 PM UTC

By Katie Benner

Katie Benner is a Bloomberg View columnist who writes about technology, innovation, and the cult and culture of Silicon Valley. She lives in San Francisco. Benner previously wrote a tech and finance column for the Information. She has worked at Fortune, TheStreet.com and CNN Money, and was a freelance writer based in China covering culture, business and politics. She has a bachelor's degree in English from Bowdoin College.

No wonder so few women want to make the bargain.
Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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A curious and illuminating anecdote has emerged from the Ellen Pao v. Kleiner Perkins trial in San Francisco: Another woman at the firm who was once harassed was asked to weigh in on the punishment for her harasser.

Trae Vassallo, a former Kleiner partner, testified that, in 2009, a co-worker sexually harassed her at a restaurant and later, during a 2011 business trip, tried to enter her hotel room wearing only a bathrobe.