Ask the women - these companies safe and welcoming for me, but I'm a dude. Just within my circle of friends - direct harassment, direct name-calling, including

Ask the women - these companies safe and welcoming for me, but I'm a dude. Just within my circle of friends - direct harassment, direct name-calling, including on the record (email and IM) - with no disciplinary action as a result except a light "knock it off". Sexually explicit messages despite being told they are unwanted - with, again, no disciplinary result. Repeated derogatory comments re: their gender despite being told to stop. These are just the egregious ones that are impossible to paint with the "oh you're just being too sensitive" brush. There's lots more where that came from. So no, software companies are not all "safe and welcoming", even the big ones that should know better. If anything software companies are worse than other white collar industries - our rejection of bureaucracy and hard policy means that we rarely take official disciplinary action against abusive employees for fear of appearing too "corporate", and fear that putting a stop to these locker-room antics will compromise the relaxed, informal atmosphere that is sacrosanct in tech.