Would we ever publicly denounce a male CEO as a manipulative individual who will sue his way to the top? Nope. Then why are the petitioners that are calling for the ousting of reddit CEO Ellen Pao using the same accusation as a coded gender-based attack against her?

Of course, I’m disheartened by what been going on at reddit over the past few days.  But the petition to oust Pao is tainted with sexism from the get-go.  For petitioners to suggest that her gender discrimination lawsuit against her previous employer, Kleiner Perkins, somehow led to mismanagement of reddit and gave her an opportunity to push some ulterior motive is silly at best, downright sexist at worse.  It seizes on the sensationalism of her previous court case and uses it as a weapon it against her.

Plain and simple, we’re harder on female CEO’s than male CEO’s. Just ask Harvard Business Review). And when we talk about a lack of workplace diversity and a perpetual ceiling that prevents women and minorities from rising to the top of Corporate America, this attack is the exact reason why such a ceiling exists. 

God bless Pao and the quadruple whammy she has to deal with. Being a female executive of Asian decent in Silicon Valley.