8 ms·

Unfortunately, there's a segment of society that will extrapolate the high-profile failure of one woman to reaffirm their misguided belief that her gender was p

by hvs 10y ago

Unfortunately, there's a segment of society that will extrapolate the high-profile failure of one woman to reaffirm their misguided belief that her gender was part of the reason for her failure.

SilasX 10y ago
Yeah, it's like the XKCD: Enron -> wow, Ken Lay sucks. Theranos -> wow, women founders suck. https://xkcd.com/385/ https://xkcd.com/385/
endymi0n 10y ago
Agreed, her and Marissa Mayer make for some very visible, very unfortunate anti role models recently. Certainly doesn't help for paving the way for more women to join the top ranks.
- forgetsusername 10y ago
  >very unfortunate anti role models recently I think there's a huge difference between the two. Sure, Ms. Meyer floundered running a big (struggling) company, especially when so much was made about "Female CEO!" But really, her "failure" is pretty average when it comes to corporate executive misadventure; nothing she did makes her unworthy of being a role-model. Ms. Holmes, on the other hand, may have overseen a massive fraud.
  - pessimizer 10y ago
    Yeah, Marissa Meyer was hired to save a dinosaur from the tarpit, and has done a mediocre job at it. She isn't even that bad - she's no Carly Fiorina - and I've never seen her ethics challenged. I'd go as far as to say that if Meyer at least manages to unwind Yahoo gracefully, she may move on to greater success in the future in a similar position.
    - nickpsecurity 10y ago
      "Yeah, Marissa Meyer was hired to save a dinosaur from the tarpit, and has done a mediocre job at it. She isn't even that bad - she's no Carly Fiorina - and I've never seen her ethics challenged." That's how I look at it. I'm still a fan of Meyer due to the great work she did at Google. That's where she showed her talents. Yahoo was a terrible situation... aimed at the ground calling for "Ludicrous Speed!"... and she failed on an attempt to turn it into a winner. Maybe wasn't greedy enough for shareholders or something. They'll make less money than they wanted to. (shrugs) Honestly, of the various failures, that's the kind that bothers me the least. People tried to do something good for all parties but screwed up. Least they tried and didn't just suck wealth out of the company while setting it up to fail. Like recent IBM CEO did and similarly left mess in hands of a woman who will take fall if she can't 180 it. Actually, I haven't even looked at that story in a while so I don't know if she's even still there haha. Anyway, I'll judge Meyer on her next play as Yahoo is an outlier.
      - firebones 10y ago
        We tend to judge many simply because they happen to find themselves on an uneven playing field. In Meyer's case, it was both the tailwind of the Google juggernaut, and the headwind of Yahoo. But what of the thousands who are on the level playing field that we never hear of?
        nickpsecurity 10y ago
        That's a great point. It warrants a reply. Well, they're mostly screwed due to fate. You know that part. Far as Meyer, what I considered interesting about her success was that Google only tried to hire geniuses and such. So, the average person in management might be asked about some run of the mill problem or strategy. Whereas, she had to be the gatekeeper and/or internal sponsor of all kinds of crap Googlers came up with that was anywhere from out of touch to clever to on another level. Just got her a boost in my mind. From another perspective, it might have been easy for her if she was a non-geek with the ability to drill through people's BS. They'd have a disadvantage against her that people at C-level or non-geek management might not have. That's another angle I thought about.
Disruptive_Dave 10y ago
But her gender would've been part of a success story, safe to say. [This is why all gender doesn't belong in these conversations, "good" or "bad"]
Fede_V 10y ago
That's probably the most unfortunate thing about the entire situation. Well that, and the people working for Theranos who will face the backlash.
- striking 10y ago
  Is gender really the most unfortunate thing about the entire situation? The mischaracterization of women sucks, don't get me wrong. But there are so many other things wrong going on here that this comment really confused me.
- fabulist 10y ago
  What about the people whom Theranos failed to deliver accurate test results to? They are the losers here.

by hvs 10y ago

Unfortunately, there's a segment of society that will extrapolate the high-profile failure of one woman to reaffirm their misguided belief that her gender was part of the reason for her failure.

SilasX 10y ago

Yeah, it's like the XKCD: Enron -> wow, Ken Lay sucks. Theranos -> wow, women founders suck. https://xkcd.com/385/ https://xkcd.com/385/

endymi0n 10y ago

Agreed, her and Marissa Mayer make for some very visible, very unfortunate anti role models recently. Certainly doesn't help for paving the way for more women to join the top ranks.

forgetsusername 10y ago
>very unfortunate anti role models recently I think there's a huge difference between the two. Sure, Ms. Meyer floundered running a big (struggling) company, especially when so much was made about "Female CEO!" But really, her "failure" is pretty average when it comes to corporate executive misadventure; nothing she did makes her unworthy of being a role-model. Ms. Holmes, on the other hand, may have overseen a massive fraud.
- pessimizer 10y ago
  Yeah, Marissa Meyer was hired to save a dinosaur from the tarpit, and has done a mediocre job at it. She isn't even that bad - she's no Carly Fiorina - and I've never seen her ethics challenged. I'd go as far as to say that if Meyer at least manages to unwind Yahoo gracefully, she may move on to greater success in the future in a similar position.
  - nickpsecurity 10y ago
    "Yeah, Marissa Meyer was hired to save a dinosaur from the tarpit, and has done a mediocre job at it. She isn't even that bad - she's no Carly Fiorina - and I've never seen her ethics challenged." That's how I look at it. I'm still a fan of Meyer due to the great work she did at Google. That's where she showed her talents. Yahoo was a terrible situation... aimed at the ground calling for "Ludicrous Speed!"... and she failed on an attempt to turn it into a winner. Maybe wasn't greedy enough for shareholders or something. They'll make less money than they wanted to. (shrugs) Honestly, of the various failures, that's the kind that bothers me the least. People tried to do something good for all parties but screwed up. Least they tried and didn't just suck wealth out of the company while setting it up to fail. Like recent IBM CEO did and similarly left mess in hands of a woman who will take fall if she can't 180 it. Actually, I haven't even looked at that story in a while so I don't know if she's even still there haha. Anyway, I'll judge Meyer on her next play as Yahoo is an outlier.
    - firebones 10y ago
      We tend to judge many simply because they happen to find themselves on an uneven playing field. In Meyer's case, it was both the tailwind of the Google juggernaut, and the headwind of Yahoo. But what of the thousands who are on the level playing field that we never hear of?
      - nickpsecurity 10y ago
        That's a great point. It warrants a reply. Well, they're mostly screwed due to fate. You know that part. Far as Meyer, what I considered interesting about her success was that Google only tried to hire geniuses and such. So, the average person in management might be asked about some run of the mill problem or strategy. Whereas, she had to be the gatekeeper and/or internal sponsor of all kinds of crap Googlers came up with that was anywhere from out of touch to clever to on another level. Just got her a boost in my mind. From another perspective, it might have been easy for her if she was a non-geek with the ability to drill through people's BS. They'd have a disadvantage against her that people at C-level or non-geek management might not have. That's another angle I thought about.

Disruptive_Dave 10y ago

But her gender would've been part of a success story, safe to say. [This is why all gender doesn't belong in these conversations, "good" or "bad"]

Fede_V 10y ago

That's probably the most unfortunate thing about the entire situation. Well that, and the people working for Theranos who will face the backlash.

striking 10y ago
Is gender really the most unfortunate thing about the entire situation? The mischaracterization of women sucks, don't get me wrong. But there are so many other things wrong going on here that this comment really confused me.
fabulist 10y ago
What about the people whom Theranos failed to deliver accurate test results to? They are the losers here.