Julie Ann Horvath shocked the tech world on Friday night by announcing via Twitter that she was leaving her tech company Github due to harassment from her corporate leadership. Horvath’s Twitter feed delves into the nitty-gritty details of her departure:
Horvath, an influential software engineer, has always been a spokeswoman for gender equality in her field – which is notorious for its “brogrammer” culture. She even founded the woman-targeted outreach program “Passion Projects” – a growing lecture series that encourages women to enter the tech industry.
Horvath originally had to defend her decision to work for the start-up, which proved to be nowhere near as progressive as she was led to believe. Now, she’s sorry she ever spoke in GitHub’s favor:
In an interview with TechCrunch, Horvath reveals her full version of events, which can be summarized as multiple accounts of blatant sexism and internal corruption.
After she realized the prevalence of these issues within the company and was not satisfied with how they were being dealt with, she quit. Horvath originally intended to leave quietly, but Silicon Valley’s extensive social media outlets made this impossible.
While her exit was still under wraps, a nasty post popped up on the newly popular Secret social network. And after experiencing the full internet vitriol, Horvath gave a very public notice:
Horvath claims she’s not merely seeking attention with her comments, but hopes to use this opportunity to expose the rampant sexism in her industry. Turning their own fire against them, as it were.
Way to go, Julie Ann.
Images courtesy of thinkprogress.org, techcrunch.com, and Twitter
