Today in Cis Privilege: Sexism and Misogyny Rampant in Tech Industry

The tech industry — both startups and big companies like Google and Yahoo — have struggled with gender inclusion and its overall “brogrammer” culture. Men in tech outnumber women seven to three and make up an overwhelming majority of leadership positions. That disparity has been shown to shut women out for not “fitting the culture” or because they are considered unqualified. Once hired, women in tech frequently face sexual harassment and discriminatory policies that ignore gender-based harassment in the workplace. This kind of culture has also been blamed for the droves of women leaving science and technology jobs much sooner than their male counterparts.

The tech industry’s homogeneous culture has also been attributed to cultivating bad policies that alienate female customers by painting them as technologically challenged or excluding them altogether. Assassin’s Creed video game developer Ubisoft recently angered fans for refusing to add a lead female character to its newest game because it “too much work,” ignoring the fact that half of all gamers are women. Microsoft also fended off backlash earlier this year after it released a controversial commercial implying that women only use computers for wedding planning and checking Pinterest. Google faced similar allegations after airing a Gmail tutorial that suggested a woman could use the email service’s new format to easily confirm dates and shop for shoes. Since then, the company has launched new initiatives to get more young girls and women interested in tech and improve diversity.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/07/01/3455494/tinder-sexual-harassment-lawsuit/

Today in Cis Privilege: U.S. Supreme Court decides corporate interests trump women’s reproductive health

The Supreme Court ruled Monday morning that the government cannot compel closely held corporations with religious owners to provide contraception coverage for its employees.

Two family-owned companies, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties, had argued that the insurance requirement in President Barack Obama’s signature 2010 health care law violated a 1993 religious-freedom law.

The health care law already excludes churches and other religious entities from the contraception mandate.

The Hobby Lobby arts-and-crafts retailer is operated by evangelical Christians, and cabinet manufacturer Conestoga Wood Specialties is owned by Mennonites.

The Obama administration argued that for-profit companies – even closely held ones – do not exercise religious rights as individuals and therefore are not covered by the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

But the court, in a 5-4 vote and majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, upheld an appeals court ruling on the case, finding that the government had failed to show that its mandate is the “least restrictive means of advancing its interest in guaranteeing cost-free access to birth control.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/30/hobby-lobby-wins-supreme-court-case-limits-the-aca-contraception-mandate/

Today in Cis Privilege: Only 2.6% of construction workers in the U.S. are women

The share of women in the construction industry has remained shockingly low—under 3 percent—for decades, due in large part to the discrimination that blocks women from entering and staying in the field. Sexual harassment and hostility, lack of mentors, and stereotyped assumptions about women’s capabilities all contribute to the problem. Unequal access to construction jobs in turn negatively affects women’s income, as traditionally male fields pay higher wages and have a lower wage gap than those dominated by women. More must be done to reverse this trend in construction, and the growth of women’s participation in similar nontraditional fields shows that it is possible.

http://www.nwlc.org/resource/women-construction-still-breaking-ground

Today in Cis Privilege: A Woman With Perfect Grades Is Worth The Same As A Man With A 2.0 Average

A woman who got a 4.0 GPA in high school will only be worth about as much, income-wise, as a man who got a 2.0. A woman with a 2.0 average will make about as much as a man with a 0 GPA.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/05/21/3439865/women-gender-wage-gap-gpa/

Today in Cis Privilege: Women CEOs Are More Likely To Be Forced Out Of Their Jobs

Few women are brought in as CEOs of the largest American companies, and when they are, they’re more likely to end up forced out in the end, according to a new report from Strategy&.

Just 3 percent of the new CEOs brought in among the country’s largest 2,500 public companies were women this year, a 1.3 percent drop from 2012. And the percentage of women at the helm of the largest companies may be staying relatively flat in recent years because female CEOs are more likely to be fired than men. Over the past decade, 38 percent of women were forced out of the chief executive role, compared to just 27 percent of men, a finding that is statistically significant.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/04/29/3432032/women-ceos-fired/