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I agree. However similar surveys should be conducted of male employees. Sexual harassment of males is systemically underreported.

jnovek 8y ago
I see this as a rising tide. The amount or women sexually harassed appears to be much higher than the amount of men. By establishing policies that benefit the biggest victim group, you can pave the way to better policies for all the groups. Think of it as social triage. I also suspect that YC will take a man reporting a sexual assault as seriously as a woman. In my experience YC is open minded and egalitarian.
- bluGill 8y ago
  It isn't just YC though. Society has a very strong double standard here. Men socially are likely to have a hard time if they report anything and it is found out: "you should have just slept with her". Women who report it will get sympathy for what happened if people find out. While in both cases the victim will be uncomfortable and probably not want to talk about it in public, women can talk about it to their closest friends while men cannot.
- Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
  I just see it as sexist. "Appears to be much higher" is an unscientific basis for sexism. I think that this might just be because members of this community are mostly men, so male->female harassment being more common is a statistical certainty. But the same goes for the ratio of, for example, heterosexual men to homosexual men, and anyone in those demographics affected by harrassment are left out in the cold. We have a [dead] example in this thread of a male victim who has been the target of female harassment. You don't fight sexist behavior with more sexist behavior. Just conduct the survey of everyone. Use demographics after the fact to establish trends, don't go into it with bias. In other words: the methodology used here literally covers up sexual harassment. It's just a sex no one cares about.
AdrianB1 8y ago
In many cases males do not consider sexual harassment some basic interactions like asking someone for a coffee; some coffee will remain just a coffee, some will not, the line is drawn where an offer is no longer just an offer, but when it is repeated or involves coercion. On the other side, I saw women misunderstanding neutral situations way more often. This will make the percentage of women complaining of harassment always much bigger than men.
LyndsySimon 8y ago
I very much agree, and came here to say this. While I don't see a pressing need to do a survey like this specifically for men, it seems jarring to me that the survey was only sent to women. Why? It would have been no more difficult to send it to men as well. The results would likely have reinforced the need for things like Callisto; their lack gives anyone opposed to this sort of thing ammunition to attack the concept without addressing it on its merits.

jnovek 8y ago

I see this as a rising tide. The amount or women sexually harassed appears to be much higher than the amount of men. By establishing policies that benefit the biggest victim group, you can pave the way to better policies for all the groups. Think of it as social triage. I also suspect that YC will take a man reporting a sexual assault as seriously as a woman. In my experience YC is open minded and egalitarian.

bluGill 8y ago
It isn't just YC though. Society has a very strong double standard here. Men socially are likely to have a hard time if they report anything and it is found out: "you should have just slept with her". Women who report it will get sympathy for what happened if people find out. While in both cases the victim will be uncomfortable and probably not want to talk about it in public, women can talk about it to their closest friends while men cannot.
Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
I just see it as sexist. "Appears to be much higher" is an unscientific basis for sexism. I think that this might just be because members of this community are mostly men, so male->female harassment being more common is a statistical certainty. But the same goes for the ratio of, for example, heterosexual men to homosexual men, and anyone in those demographics affected by harrassment are left out in the cold. We have a [dead] example in this thread of a male victim who has been the target of female harassment. You don't fight sexist behavior with more sexist behavior. Just conduct the survey of everyone. Use demographics after the fact to establish trends, don't go into it with bias. In other words: the methodology used here literally covers up sexual harassment. It's just a sex no one cares about.

AdrianB1 8y ago

In many cases males do not consider sexual harassment some basic interactions like asking someone for a coffee; some coffee will remain just a coffee, some will not, the line is drawn where an offer is no longer just an offer, but when it is repeated or involves coercion. On the other side, I saw women misunderstanding neutral situations way more often. This will make the percentage of women complaining of harassment always much bigger than men.

LyndsySimon 8y ago

I very much agree, and came here to say this. While I don't see a pressing need to do a survey like this specifically for men, it seems jarring to me that the survey was only sent to women. Why? It would have been no more difficult to send it to men as well. The results would likely have reinforced the need for things like Callisto; their lack gives anyone opposed to this sort of thing ammunition to attack the concept without addressing it on its merits.