Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Ellen Pao’s new book, Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change, was released on Tuesday. Reset is the story of what happened before, at, and after she filed a workplace gender discrimination lawsuit against an employer. The book is short-listed for the 2017 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.

The landmark court case filed in 2012 was heard before a jury in 2015 in a trial that lasted 5 weeks. The trial was covered daily by many reporters, and followed by people around the world. Pao did not prevail in court, but her story resonated with others and encouraged them to stand up for their rights. It started a global conversation about sexism in tech industry where women and minorities still form a small percentage of workers. “The culture, I began to realize, is designed to keep out people who aren’t white men,” said Pao.

Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change explains why Pao turned down the settlement offered to her and chose to tell her story in a public trial in spite of enormous monetry and emotional costs. “I believed I had an obligation to speak out about what I’d seen as one of the few women and people of color in that world,” said Pao.

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