3 ms·

Hey there - Anjana (CTO of Callisto) here. You're absolutely right - this problem is not just unique to women, and male founders experience this too (we know th

Hey there - Anjana (CTO of Callisto) here. You're absolutely right - this problem is not just unique to women, and male founders experience this too (we know that reporting rates are extremely low among men because of the stigma involved.) In fact, our current product for college students (Callisto Campus) is actively used by survivors of all genders. Given that VC-funded founder community is predominantly male, there might be even more male founder-survivors than female. For the survey, we started with a small list of female founders that we thought we could get a high response rate from. We definitely are interested in doing surveys of all genders. Callisto Expansion for Founders is launching on November 15th and it is for founders of all genders, not just for women.

forapurpose 8y ago
Given the power dynamic between genders, do you think it's accurate to draw an equivalency between the sexual harassment of women and of men? You've thought about and know about these issues far more than me (and most people here); how do you think about this question? SV is run by males and so is much of society. Men also generally have far more physical ability to defend themselves, and to a much greater extent they are socialized to assert themselves. Also, I expect that sexual harassment and assault against men is much less frequent. Finally, I'm sure you are aware that a common way to derail other issues of discrimination is to claim that the people on the dominant side of the power dynamic also are victims, such as when people claim racial discrimination against white-skinned people is ignored. How do you think about these factors?
- tomp 8y ago
  Your problem is that you're treating "men" as a non-distinct group, not people as individuals. Just because most people in power are men, it doesn't follow that "the people on the dominant side of the power dynamic" cannot also be victims. That's just extremely bad logic. Furthermore, including men would result in having more victims/documented cases, which should help resolve the problem sooner (unless of course one's intention isn't to solve the problem of power abuse and sexual harassment, but instead to "turn the tables on men" or something similarly sexist).
  - funkythings 8y ago
    wait wait wait wa...are you suggesting we should treat people based on the individual, not group identity?
mindgam3 8y ago
Hi Anjana, thank you for working to tackle such an important problem. I am of the class male-founder-survivor and I'm interested in learning about the upcoming expansion. Is there a way to sign up for a waitlist?
jVinc 8y ago
So you admit freely that you actively tried to bias your survey. I admire that you are honest about it, but I'm extremely confused as to why you are honest about that it seems like you're shooting yourself in the foot twice. Firstly by fudging the survey and secondly by admitting it. Was the intention to manipulate the rates in order to get better PR for Callisto? It seems such an odd move to damage any scientific credibility you could have wished for right out the gates if you intend to honestly change things. I understand the mentality of "Well we are fudging the numbers but its for a good cause so we'll do it anyway", but you do realize that down the road it gives a carte-blanche option of those you wish to pressure into changing to just say "Well we don't give two cents what Callisto says, they've historically fudged their surveys and as such we disregard them completely"?
- felixhandte 8y ago
  When you accuse Anjana of (admitting to) intentionally biasing the survey, I think you're referring to this statement: > [we sent the survey to people] that we thought we could get a high response rate from. I understood that to mean that they sent the survey to people they expected would fill it out, not that they sent the survey to people they expected would fill out the survey in any particular way. Is that an interpretation you considered and rejected for some reason?

forapurpose 8y ago

Given the power dynamic between genders, do you think it's accurate to draw an equivalency between the sexual harassment of women and of men? You've thought about and know about these issues far more than me (and most people here); how do you think about this question? SV is run by males and so is much of society. Men also generally have far more physical ability to defend themselves, and to a much greater extent they are socialized to assert themselves. Also, I expect that sexual harassment and assault against men is much less frequent. Finally, I'm sure you are aware that a common way to derail other issues of discrimination is to claim that the people on the dominant side of the power dynamic also are victims, such as when people claim racial discrimination against white-skinned people is ignored. How do you think about these factors?

tomp 8y ago
Your problem is that you're treating "men" as a non-distinct group, not people as individuals. Just because most people in power are men, it doesn't follow that "the people on the dominant side of the power dynamic" cannot also be victims. That's just extremely bad logic. Furthermore, including men would result in having more victims/documented cases, which should help resolve the problem sooner (unless of course one's intention isn't to solve the problem of power abuse and sexual harassment, but instead to "turn the tables on men" or something similarly sexist).
- funkythings 8y ago
  wait wait wait wa...are you suggesting we should treat people based on the individual, not group identity?

mindgam3 8y ago

Hi Anjana, thank you for working to tackle such an important problem. I am of the class male-founder-survivor and I'm interested in learning about the upcoming expansion. Is there a way to sign up for a waitlist?

jVinc 8y ago

So you admit freely that you actively tried to bias your survey. I admire that you are honest about it, but I'm extremely confused as to why you are honest about that it seems like you're shooting yourself in the foot twice. Firstly by fudging the survey and secondly by admitting it. Was the intention to manipulate the rates in order to get better PR for Callisto? It seems such an odd move to damage any scientific credibility you could have wished for right out the gates if you intend to honestly change things. I understand the mentality of "Well we are fudging the numbers but its for a good cause so we'll do it anyway", but you do realize that down the road it gives a carte-blanche option of those you wish to pressure into changing to just say "Well we don't give two cents what Callisto says, they've historically fudged their surveys and as such we disregard them completely"?

felixhandte 8y ago
When you accuse Anjana of (admitting to) intentionally biasing the survey, I think you're referring to this statement: > [we sent the survey to people] that we thought we could get a high response rate from. I understood that to mean that they sent the survey to people they expected would fill it out, not that they sent the survey to people they expected would fill out the survey in any particular way. Is that an interpretation you considered and rejected for some reason?