美国国家公共电台 NPR How A Female Engineer Built A Public Case Against A Sexual Harasser In Silicon Valley

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

In the past two months, many powerful men accused of sexual misconduct from Hollywood to the U.S. Congress have lost their jobs. It wasn't always the case, though, that this type of behavior would be punished. NPR's Laura Sydell has the story of a Silicon¹ Valley engineer who wanted to make certain that when she came forward, the man responsible paid a price.

LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE²: Niniane Wang has an impressive pedigree - master's in computer science, founder³ of Google Desktop⁴ and lead engineer positions at Microsoft. Back in 2010, she ran an incubator for elite⁵ startups. Justin Caldbeck, one of her investors⁷, asked to meet Wang for a drink to talk about a new company.

NINIANE WANG: And when I showed up, he switched the conversation to be questions about my dating life and then started to pressure me for sex.

SYDELL: Afraid to offend an important investor⁶, Wang politely declined, but Caldbeck continued to pursue her, not just that night but over a period of weeks.

WANG: I felt very trapped.

SYDELL: He finally gave up. Wang felt conflicted. She wanted to warn other women about him, but she'd seen too many women tell their stories only to be ignored, disbelieved or worse.

WANG: You worked up all this courage to tell your story and the perpetrator doesn't have any consequences.

SYDELL: Wang also worried that coming forward would hurt her chances of attracting other investors. Then, she saw the resignation of Uber's CEO and other executives after the company got caught up in a harassment⁸ scandal. Seeing how they were brought down inspired her. With the logic⁹ of an engineer, she developed her own method for dealing¹⁰ with harassment. First - have a goal. Hers was making sure that if anyone searched Justin Caldbeck's name on Google, stories of harassment would pop up. Then, she gathered evidence - texts, emails, phone records.

Word got around the whisper network and two other victims of his harassment came forward with her. They strategically picked a media outlet¹¹ - The Information, an online news site read by Silicon Valley elite. Then, on a Thursday in June, the article was published.

WANG: I felt at the time like I was jumping off a cliff and taking two other women with me (laughter).

SYDELL: At first, nothing happened. Wang had a network of people on social media, so she made sure they saw the article and reposted it. Over the course of four days, Caldbeck went from denying the allegations to resigning from his venture capital firm. Caldbeck told NPR, I'm sorry to any women that I've ever put in a bad position or made uncomfortable through my actions. Wang's clearheaded engineering strategy had worked. In fact, it had worked so well that it actually impressed investors like Mike Hirshland. Wang was an acquaintance of his, and he was always impressed, so he sent her a note.

MIKE HIRSHLAND: I just wanted to make sure that in a time that she probably felt like she was in the middle of a tempest that just wanted to share with her that I was a big fan and hoped someday to back her.

SYDELL: Wang's success sparked more women to come forward. Some of them came to her for advice.

KATER GORDON: When I saw Niniane come forward this summer, I reached out to her and I just thought, man, you're so brave.

SYDELL: Kater Gordon had her own story, and she told Wang about it. It involved a powerful Hollywood figure - Matthew Weiner, the creator of the hit series "Mad Men." When she was 27, Gordon was his writing assistant. She even won an Emmy for her work. Gordon says she often worked long hours late into the night alone with Weiner. One night...

GORDON: We were working together, and he told me that I owed it to him to let him see me naked.

SYDELL: Gordon ignored the comment, but she says it made her question whether Weiner really thought she was talented. It changed their relationship. He yelled at her at work. She left the show and gave up her career in Hollywood. Now, she wanted Wang to help her tell her story.

GORDON: She brought up to me the idea of you should have a goal in mind.

SYDELL: For Gordon, it was about restoring her reputation as a writer and warning other women about Weiner. Wang told Gordon to develop a sort of chart with ways to achieve her goal, and she told her to make sure she told her story in a way that was dispassionate and clear.

GORDON: She sort of found a pattern for herself that worked, and then she's expanding it to include other people so that the process - you're not starting from square one.

SYDELL: Gordon's account did go public. Weiner denies what happened, but Gordon feels she achieved her goal of warning other women. Now she plans to pass this method on to others. Laura Sydell, NPR News.

1 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

4 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

5 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

6 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

7 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

8 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

9 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

10 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

11 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。