A jury ruled against Ellen Pao in the retaliation suit she filed against Kleiner Perkins Caufiled & Byers over gender discrimination — but her fellow tech workers don’t see it as a loss. In the days after the verdict was announced, female tech workers took out a full-page ad on the Palo Alto Daily Post as a way to commend Pao for raising issues of gender discrimination and the lack of female employees in the Valley.
According to Lori Hobson, a Valley tech worker, the idea came while a group was hanging out at a Palo Alto café, discussing the case. While some (mainly men) felt that Pao’s loss was a setback for women, “none of the women thought that — they all thought it was great that she told her story and that the issues were raised,” Hobson told USA Today. So to show that support, Hobson and a group of other women launched a Facebook page to raise money, and took out an ad that simply reads, “Thanks Ellen.”