I ve done what I needed to do. I m not needed anymore, and I know it.
— Vivek Wadhwa, academic, entrepreneur and co-author of Innovating Women, on speaking out about gender diversity.
A provocateur about race, immigration, gender and more, Wadhwa has seen his share of controversy, especially since his arrival in Silicon Valley in 2009. A recent high-profile example came a couple of years ago: He got into a dust-up with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo when he called out the Twitter mafia over the dearth of women in top positions at Twitter.
Some women don t want Wadhwa speaking for them.
I think his intentions are good, but his message and his voice are actually damaging women, said Sarah Szalavitz, chief executive of design agency 7 Robot, according to the New York Times. It has nothing to do with his gender or his ethnic identity, but what he s saying and how he s saying it.
Wadhwa s message includes urging women to be more confident, even brash.
That doesn t sit well with some women, including Cate Huston, a software engineer who has worked at Google and IBM, who told the NYT: I think that in 2015 we can give women better advice than Behave more like men.
Wadhwa s declaration that he s done talking about gender diversity comes as others are talking more about gender issues in Silicon Valley. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has started the Lean In movement; tech companies are being more transparent about their workforce demographics; and all eyes are on the Ellen Pao-Kleiner Perkins sex-discrimination trial, whose opening arguments began this week.
Photo: Vivek Wadhwa speaks at the Ideas for a Better Internet Summit at Stanford University on Jan. 17, 2012. (Nhat V. Meyer/Mercury News)
