Silicon Valley Sexists!...Oops...Are Other Silicon Valley Women
Elon Musk was sneered at for following zero women on Twitter. He has since followed one, according to a Heat Street reporter, Lukas Mikelionis. But Mikelionis also notes:
Silicon Valley often gets ripped for being bro-centric and unfriendly to women. The latest criticism centers around the use social media. Specifically, the charge is that top male CEOs and founders show their inherent "sexism" by not following enough women on Twitter.Guess what: Turns out their female counterparts in the Valley also follow mostly men on Twitter.
Here are a few women and their follows:
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki follows 296 accounts: 120 men, 37 women, the rest are brands and news organizations.HP CEO Meg Whitman follows 298 accounts: 58 men, 19 women, the rest are brands and news organizations.
Apple Senior VP Angela Ahrendts follows 146 accounts: 64 men, 21 women, the rest are brands and news organizations.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer follows 343 accounts: 239 men, 65 women, the rest are brands and news organizations.
Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg follows 17 accounts: 5 men, 10 women, 2 brand accounts--suggesting that Sandberg is erasing the voices of men in tech, if judged by the same standard.
Researchers in sex differences (Anne Campbell, Joyce Benenson) note that men tend to be the warriors and competitors of the species, most comfortable with hierarchy and competition, and women tend to group in dyads (twos) and to try to avoid standing out. As for other women who do, they tend to mean girl them down. This is, perhaps, why women tend to bond -- as Benenson notes -- through shared vulnerabilities rather than the one-upmanship of men.
Men also get mates through success and high status, while men are less concerned about women's success -- though more and more, men are looking for partners that are closer in match to them in terms of education, etc.
Now, there are individual differences, sure, but the general propensities of men and women seem to explain why men, overwhelmingly, populate the top ranks of tech and other areas.








At the risk of sounding mysogynist, Twitter is an excellent platform for people who can get to the point quickly. It works well if you have an almost Klingon-like terseness.
Canvasback at October 8, 2016 12:44 PM
I love Twitter.
Amy Alkon at October 8, 2016 8:34 PM
Educational similarity is a proxy metric. Guys are looking for cultural similarity. But it is really hard to measure that.
Ben at October 9, 2016 7:03 AM
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