Book: Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boysâ Club of Silicon Valley
March 16, 2018
I read Emily Changâs book Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boysâ Club of Silicon Valley the day it came out. Yes â I stayed up until after midnight (way past my bedtime) reading it.
Itâs powerful. I bought a bunch of copies for different people and I recommend every investor and entrepreneur in the US read it. While there are a handful of salacious stories (some of which were covered in excerpts that were pre-released), the overall arc of the book is extremely strong, well written, and deeply researched. Given Emilyâs experience as a journalist, itâs no surprise, but she did a great job of knitting together a number of different themes, in depth, to make her points. She also uses the book to make clear suggestions about what to do to improve things, although she holds off from being preachy, which is also nice.
Interestingly, Iâve heard criticism, including some that Iâd categorize as aggressive, from several men I know. There doesnât seem to be a clear pattern in the criticism, although some of it seems to be a reaction to several of the specific stories. In one case, Iâd categorize the criticism as an effort to debate morality. In another, I heard an emotional reaction to what was categorized as an ad-hominem attack on a friend of the person. But I havenât been able to coherently synthesize the criticism, and interestingly Iâve only heard it from men.
As Iâve been marching slowly through historic feminist literature recommended by Amy, I realized that I had read three contemporary books in the last few months that materially added to this list. In addition to Emilyâs book Brotopia, I read Sarah Lacyâs book A Uterus Is a Feature, Not a Bug: The Working Womanâs Guide to Overthrowing the Patriarchy and Ellen Paoâs book Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change.
While Sarah and Ellenâs books are written from deep, personal experiences, I thought all three books were important, very readable, and bravely written.
Also published on Medium.