I had a boss who stood up for me against sexist office jerks

A friend of mine is a female PhD candidate in astrophysics, a predominantly male field. She entered graduate school expecting sexism and harassment, and unfortunately that expectation has in large part been borne out. However, one reason why she has been able to endure it is an effort on the part of male astrophysicists--many of them strangers--to intervene when they noticed she was being harassed.

One example: while meeting a research group at a post-conference social, a postdoc 10 years her senior put his arm around her. Some turned a blind eye, others were mortified yet inert, but one man got up and asked the postdoc to switch seats with him. The outcome? My friend was spared having to spend her (already scarce) social capital on wiggling out of this dude's arm, some of her faith was restored in the men in her field (reducing the odds she'd eventually quit it entirely), the dude was sent a signal that his behavior was not okay, and the intervener lost nothing for his courage.

For us males in male-dominated fields, it is critical that we be mindful of when the non-males we are interacting with are being discriminated against or harassed, and more importantly, that we do something when we notice it. It could be as dramatic as something in this article, or it could be as small as apologizing to the non-male coworker you spoke over or saying that you see the sense in a non-male coworker's idea when it seems like it might be getting criticized more for its creator's gender than its merits.

The way in which the issue was handled seems important to me. He didn't make a scene in front of the whole team, which could have been humiliating to the person who reported the intimidation. He dealt with it privately, and then returned later to notify the reporter that it had been done and what the outcome was. Thus preserving dignity for all involved while hopefully making a meaningful impact on the culture/behavior.

As a man witnessing harassment I have felt paralysed by not knowing whether calling the behaviour out in the moment would make things worse. Whether my intervention would be appreciated or looked on by the woman as bullshit white-knighting. I think this anecdote lays out a more useful path that can be emulated.

I stood up for a female colleague against inappropriate, aggressive and scary behavior from her manager. Nothing was done about it... our reporting the incident fell on deaf ears. Though not long after I reported it I started to be harassed and worse. I ultimately separated myself from that company because the harassment/bullying increased daily.

Though I'm facing hardships now yet I'm not sorry I did it because I want to work in a healthier work environment. Though it was a very well paying job, I REALLY enjoyed the work and I was often told how much many co-workers/stakeholders liked my work.

I went to work for a company several years ago that had an all-male tech team of 15 people or so, and a brotastic atmosphere that surely would have qualified as hostile work environment in court.

I was able to persuade key personnel that it was in the interest of the company and therefore in their interest to rectify the situation.

Three years later, the tech team was one-third female and the atmosphere was for the most part cleaned up.

This success story required difficult diplomacy and tenacity, and I'm not sure it was realistic to duplicate it. I often read Hacker News and despair. My teammates were redeemable, at great cost. Probably many people here would be too, but the hostility is just so strong.

Instead, I believe it will be a generational change, where the situation improves as bad elements age out and die off over decades.

Why has this disappeared from the front page?

Why was this flagged?

Hackernews should change the "flag" button to "wounds my masculinity".

After years of using hckrnews.com which shows flagged posts, I think 90% of flagged front-page posts are about harrasment and gender issues often in the tech field.