--- title: Women Face Discrimination and Sexism in Silicon Valley description: Find out how female tech executives aim to combat sexism in Silicon Valley with Project Include, which advises companies on inclusion. canonical: https://time.com/4704219/silicon-valley-sexism-project-include/ author: Kate Dwyer article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-16T18:59:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:12.044Z og:title: How Some Silicon Valley Women Are Trying to Solve Sexism og:description: The Atlantic’s cover story explores harassment and bias in America’s tech hub og:url: https://time.com/4704219/silicon-valley-sexism-project-include/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e6edd221efb9907/6988bd3b2dce01517a9ec89e/empty-office-table-chairs-e1489592672873.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Empty modern office with table and four chairs og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Some Silicon Valley Women Are Trying to Solve Sexism twitter:description: The Atlantic’s cover story explores harassment and bias in America’s tech hub twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e6edd221efb9907/6988bd3b2dce01517a9ec89e/empty-office-table-chairs-e1489592672873.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Some Silicon Valley Women Are Trying to Solve Sexism by [Kate Dwyer](https://time.com/author/kate-dwyer/) ## Kate Dwyer Mar 16, 2017 6:59 PM UTC  Shannon Fagan—Getty Images by [Kate Dwyer](https://time.com/author/kate-dwyer/) ## Kate Dwyer Mar 16, 2017 6:59 PM UTC In recent weeks, [sexism in the tech industry](http://motto.time.com/4680215/sexism-tech-uber/?iid=sr-link5) has come under the spotlight again. For [_the Atlantic’s_](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/why-is-silicon-valley-so-awful-to-women/517788/) April cover story, writer Liza Mundy explored the issue of gender bias and discrimination in Silicon Valley, from the boys’ club atmosphere of startups to problems at tech giants. Last year’s “[Elephant in the Valley](http://motto.time.com/4226297/silicon-valley-gender-discrimination-data-elephant-in-the-valley/)” study surveyed more than 200 senior-level women in Silicon Valley and found that 60% had reported experienced unwanted sexual advances. The ability to carefully reject such an advance is “a pretty important skill that I would bet most successful women in our industry have,” investor Susan Wu told _the Atlantic._ The same report found that 66% of the women surveyed felt “excluded from key social/networking opportunities because of gender.” Tumblr product manager and former Facebook employee Bo Ren told _the Atlantic_, “These backdoor conversations are happening in settings that women are not invited to. The whole boys’-club thing still applies.” Tired of hearing the same solutions proposed over and over, a group of female tech veterans started [Project Include](http://projectinclude.org/), which offers [recommendations](http://projectinclude.org/recommendations/) for promoting inclusivity. The recommendations range from “Put thought into the process of developing your code of conduct” to “Expand benefits beyond young single employees.” One of the group’s founders, Bethanye Blount, was particularly frustrated by the lack of change she has seen over the course of her career. “I am angry that things are no better for a 22-year-old at the beginning of her career than they were for me 25 years ago when I was just starting out,” she told _the Atlantic_. “I made decisions along the way that were easier for me and helped me succeed — don’t bring attention to being a woman, never talk about gender, never talk about ‘these things’ with men…But in retrospect I feel I should have done more.” Read more about tech’s diversity problem at the [_the Atlantic_](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/why-is-silicon-valley-so-awful-to-women/517788/)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4704219/silicon-valley-sexism-project-include/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4704219/silicon-valley-sexism-project-include/"},"headline":"How Some Silicon Valley Women Are Trying to Solve Sexism","datePublished":"2017-03-16T18:59:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:12.044Z","description":"The Atlantic’s cover story explores harassment and bias in America’s tech hub","url":"https://time.com/4704219/silicon-valley-sexism-project-include/","keywords":["motto","sexism","tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e6edd221efb9907/6988bd3b2dce01517a9ec89e/empty-office-table-chairs-e1489592672873.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Dwyer","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kate-dwyer/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e6edd221efb9907/6988bd3b2dce01517a9ec89e/empty-office-table-chairs-e1489592672873.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Empty modern office with table and four chairs","caption":"Empty modern office with table and four chairs","creditText":"Shannon Fagan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4704219/silicon-valley-sexism-project-include/","name":"How Some Silicon Valley Women Are Trying to Solve Sexism"}}]}] ```