If the recent wave of troubling headlines is any indication, sexual harassment has become as routine in tech as venture funding. In the latest disturbing allegations from inside the technology industry, executives at Tinder, the popular dating app, are accused of demeaning a female co-founder as a “whore” before ultimately forcing her out of the company.
Whitney Wolfe, a former vice president of marketing, claimed in a suit Monday that Justin Mateen, Tinder’s chief marketing officer, created a “frat-like” atmosphere by regularly using racist and sexist language, only to orchestrate Wolfe’s dismissal when she tried to stop the harassment. The accusations are hardly unique to Tinder, but the latest in a string of suits drawing attention to the gender issues in tech. Far from a meritocracy, Silicon Valley, with the lawsuits together with dismal diversity in employment, is starting to look like nothing more than an inaccessible boy's club.
In Monday’s suit, Wolfe describes enduring 18 months of harassment and abuse beginning when her romance with Mateen ended. The allegations include instances where Mateen called Wolfe “a desperate loser” during a marketing meeting and spread rumors that she was an alcoholic. When bringing up her concerns to Tinder CEO Sean Rad on multiple occasions, Wolfe said, she was told her job was to “keep Justin calm,” not act like a “dramatic or emotional girl.”
Wolfe, who came up with the name “Tinder” and affiliated with the company from the beginning, was designated a co-founder in November 2012 but lost that title a year later, after she said Mateen told her that having a “girl founder” would devalue the company.
