Silicon Valley’s self-image was male-centered from the mid-1980s onward

Evidence

In Silicon Valley specifically, the image of the entrepreneur that has persisted through thirty years of boom-and-bust cycles is almost always young, white, and male. Back in the mid-1980s, in his book The Big Score: The Billion Dollar Story of Silicon Valley, Michael Shawn Malone described Silicon Valley denizens as “thirty year old tycoons in T-shirts, making their first hundred million before they buy their first pin-striped suit; secretaries worth millions thanks to a few dollars spent on stock options; garage inventors suddenly finding themselves on lists of the world’s richest men.” In this portrayal, the “world’s richest” inventors are men, while the “secretaries,” presumably female, get rich through the almost-accidental purchasing of stock. This image of the industry as male-dominated, with women either irrelevant or playing the part of girlfriends or gold-diggers, persisted through the microelectronics era: Why there are few women in positions of responsibility in SV [Silicon Valley] is complex and puzzling … — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 685

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Gender inequality is structurally embedded in Silicon Valley’s self-image and status system — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 648; Tech culture’s self-image conceals a closed system of privilege centered on profit — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 647; Silicon Valley’s workplace utopia narrative concealed toxic corporate cultures — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 504

Broader Connections

• Tech culture’s self-image conceals a closed system of privilege centered on profit #complicates (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 647
• Silicon Valley’s workplace utopia narrative concealed toxic corporate cultures #complicates (0.72) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 504