Women’s tech accomplishments get credited to their male associates regardless of romantic reality

Evidence

While there certainly were women and men within the scene who both dated and worked together, these relationships were described in terms like “gold-digging” or “sleeping her way to the top” regardless of whether they were romantic or not. Culver’s founding of Pownce was attributed to her friendship with Kevin Rose or Twitter designer Daniel Burka. Owen Thomas wrote a lengthy blog post about Culver, which read, in part: “If she doesn’t want to be famous, Culver might want to take a look at her relentless techno-sexuality, which more than hints at the acquisition of influence rather than intimacy as its goal. Is it sexist to point this out? Perhaps, but not nearly as sexist as touting technical skills while sleeping your way to the top.” — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 701

Categorization

• SHARE: The Owen Thomas quote about tech-sexuality and ‘touting technical skills while sleeping your way to the top’ is exactly the kind of dated-but-revealing media artifact a media-studies friend would enjoy.
• XREF: connects to: Women’s tech accomplishments were routinely attributed to sexual relationships with men — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 703; Women’s tech careers were systematically credited to male mentors while men’s were not — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 704; Tech women’s success is dismissed as appearance-driven rather than earned — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 707 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Women’s tech careers were systematically credited to male mentors while men’s were not #corroborates (0.95) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 704
• Women’s tech accomplishments were routinely attributed to sexual relationships with men #expands (0.92) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 703
• The same professional relationship is labeled networking for men but sexualized for women #expands (0.85) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 699
• A woman’s tech career was dismissed despite evident professional success #exemplifies (0.82) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 706
• Tech women’s success is dismissed as appearance-driven rather than earned #expands (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 707
• Men assign women’s status to serve their own projects, not women’s interest #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 288