What Ellen Pao’s case—and advocacy—means to women

In her new book, Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change, Pao shares her story—the fascinating arc of her career and the bias and discrimination she encountered along the way, from Harvard Business School up through her time as CEO of Reddit.

She describes what she endured at Kleiner Perkins: all-male dinners and ski trips that blocked women from opportunities at the firm, the gaps in compensation, the gendered criticism as too aggressive or not aggressive enough, the billionaires who could only banter about the kinds of “girls” they liked, the devalued accomplishments, the colleagues who swooped in and stole projects during women’s maternity leave, and the outright sexual harassment.

Those stories—coming from Pao, not through a court of law—mean a lot to women who have experienced the same thing, over and over again.

“When we feel like we’re being locked out of the clubhouse at work because of our gender or color or some other difference, often it’s because we are,” Pao writes. “The empathy and solidarity I’ve experienced since filing suit has turned me into an activist, committed to turning our aspirations into reality.”

Her case set something off, and now that her own story is out there, women are reflecting even more on what she did—and how it’s benefitted all of us.