Protect young women in tech from sexual harassment

The past month was eventful for one of my favourite online communities: Twitter.

Over the last few years, many Kenyan techies have found a place they can share their wins, frustrations and other relatable experiences on Twitter. This naturally grew into a community complete with in-jokes, banter and a fair share of tech fights over tools and drama. This time though, something was eerily wrong.

On April 29, one of the most prominent voices in our community was outed for sexual harassment and abuse. Word was that he was using his position at the head of a coding boot camp to solicit sexual favours from his mentees. Worse still, he withheld opportunities for those who did not warm up to his advances.

The Twitter community's reaction was less than ideal, at least for those most affected, mostly because the reports came in a reproachable manner. One member had set up an ill-conceived entrapment scheme to out the perpetrator. He had told the latest target of unwanted advances to play along and even set a date.

Armed with screenshots of that conversation, that member showed up to the date to confront the accused. He then went online to out the perpetrator complete with screenshots of the conversations. Though well-meaning, this was flawed in more ways than one.

Techies build, ship and maintain tech products. We are not investigative journalists. The initial fallout from the news was incredulous at best. The conversations looked a lot like consensual flirting among adults rather than someone using his power to coerce for sexual favours. That said, the ensuing banter ignored the implied power dynamics that make even consensual flirting of that type inappropriate.

A week later, more targets of the perpetrator’s advances reached out to other popular members of the online community and they described similar experiences. They asked for anonymity as they named and shamed the perpetrator. This set off a domino effect, bringing more people out of the woodwork as they, too, shared their experiences of unwanted advances by other individuals in power.

We were starting to get things right. Centering those affected, is the best way to handle reports of sexual harassment and abuse. I dare say we had our own #MeToo moment but we ultimately went off the rails. Yes, I include myself in this generalisation.

Courtship

We questioned the intentions of those affected and of those entrusted to share experiences anonymously. We had absurd justifications that the behaviour was normal consensual courtship. The most surprising of all, younger women questioned why their peers were acting anonymously, oblivious to the shame we heap on those affected as opposed to perpetrators.

Fortunately, the voices and experiences of those affected rose above all the incredulous voices. We got more people holding the perpetrator to account rather than excusing his actions. As the tech community, we are not perfect, but it is a promising start. Evidence that each time we protect and elevate the voices of those affected we move closer to justice.

At the end of last week, we had an announcement. The perpetrator was vacating his position of power in the organisation and effectively in our community. How and when students and mentees get accepted into that organisation's programmes will never again be determined by whether applicants accept any of his advances. Progress yes, but not accountability or amends for those affected. As a community we will continue to demand for that.

This unfortunate turn of events though is not an indictment of mentors. No professional industry is as democratised as technology. Anyone with an internet connection and drive can learn how to be a techie. That comes along with a flood of evangelism and hype for specific tools, skills and approaches to technology.

Mentors help navigate that sea and through their experience guide you through the particular skills and approaches you need for problems you want to solve. Better still, they will be the first to recommend you whenever the skills you are developing are required.

It is, however, inappropriate and abhorrent for them to ask for sexual favours or even companionship in exchange for that help. Our community and society at large should make mentors near paranoid about crossing that line.

Lastly, moments like these are for centering those affected and their experiences. They are not a chance to try and empathise with the perpetrator. They should not be used to coach on how to spot and avoid people like the perpetrator. How we treat those that speak out determines whether others will be confident and safe to call out future perpetrators.

The writer is a tech entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Sophie bot ([email protected]).