Did Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers retaliate against Ellen Pao when it fired her? Ultimately, a jury said “no.”
A former junior partner at Kleiner Perkins, one of Silicon Valley’s most famous venture capital firms, Pao claims she was punished and eventually fired in 2012 for questioning the firm’s treatment of women. Her lawyers argue the firm — which backed notable tech companies from Amazon to Google to Zynga — judged male and female employees differently in an illegal double-standard.
“I really believe, win or lose, this case has been really helpful in bringing to light the huge gender disparity and the behavior that happens in the tech world,” said Joyce Ehrlinger, a psychology professor at Washington State University and author of a study that found women consistently underestimate their performance.