Tech Journo Sarah Lacy’s Guide To Smash Patriarchy: ‘A Uterus Is A Feature Not A Bug’
Sarah Lacy’s #nofucks book titled, “A Uterus Is A Feature Not A Bug” has generated a lot of buzz, and it is said to struck a chord with women. After all patriarchy has become the common thread by which we are bound to connect with each other at some level. SHEROES got talking with the Founder, Editor-In-Chief and CEO at PandoMedia, Sarah Lacy, to talk about her new book, which promises to smash patriarchy. Boom!
About Pando
Pando is a profitable media company specializing in investigative journalism, and holding the most powerful people in the world accountable for their words and actions. Apparently they’ve endured more than $300 million in legal threats trying to silence their form of journalism.
I grew up in Memphis Tennessee, and went to Rhodes College where I majored in Literature. I did an internship at a tiny business publication in Memphis when I was 20 or so and was hooked on business journalism for life. In 1999, I moved to Silicon Valley -- peak of the dot com bubble to cover tech and finance. In 2005 I joined BusinessWeek, where I co-wrote a cover on the rise of Web 2.0 that lead to my first book "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and Rise of Web 2.0"
After that I wrote a column for BusinessWeek.com, co-hosted the online video show TechTicker for Yahoo Finance and joined TechCrunch. I also started work on my second book "Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the top 1% of entrepreneurs profit from global chaos." I spent 40 weeks traveling through emerging markets to report on that book.
Then I joined TechCrunch full time, helping build it. I left a year after we sold, once AOL broke its promises of not meddling with editorial. I started Pando while on maternity leave with my first child, taking him with me to raise $2.5 m from some of the biggest VCs in Silicon Valley.
Today, I have an almost six year old son and a 5 year old company and an almost 4 year old daughter
Inspiration Behind The Book
For my 20s and most of my 30s the world lied to me. I was told-- and convinced-- that motherhood would make me weaker. That some sort of "biological pull" would change everything about me. I would lack ambition, focus, I'd be exhausted all the time. Mostly, my career would be over.
I found the exact opposite to be true: Motherhood made me better, stronger, more focused, and more successful in almost every way. As a human being, a reporter, an entrepreneur and a manager. I wanted to tell young girls who are terrified of becoming mothers that it's all a lie. And I wanted to explore why the world has convinced us that something so powerful and almost superhuman is a disability.
Tackling The Patriarchy
Well, the most high profile example was probably taking on Uber. Two years ago an Uber executive's plan to silence me by targeting my family was exposed by BuzzFeed. Rather than being intimidated, I spoke out about how wrong it was-- loudly, and a lot. I also continued to cover Uber, exposing a lot of negative news on the company months before competitors. It was an incredibly hostile environment, but we refused to be bullied or cowed or victim shamed and trust me-- the whole playbook of how people try to silence women.
The Rise Of Female Warrior
So I'd say "badass female warrior" NOT cool! :) Cool girl or "cool dude" as I call myself pre-kids is more the "guy's girl" who doesn't rock the boat and is totally OK with the patriarchy and wonders what all the screeching about feminism is about.
Badass feminist warrior is sick of all that shit.
Step 1: Don't be afraid to call this shit out and talk about it
Step 2: Stop feeling guilty and all the BS that the patriarchy puts in womens heads
Step 3: support other women
Sarah puts out the fact that the book sadly holds more relevance now than ever. This book has unfortunately become way more essential in 2017 than it was when I signed the contract for it back in 2016. Back then we could cling to a hope that things were getting better for women. A woman was running for President and highly favored to win, Ellen Pao had come out against Kleiner Perkins putting a spotlight on “micro-indignities” that women face, unconscious bias was the buzzword in Silicon Valley and diversity stats were getting released with vows to do better. Things weren’t actually better, but we could pretend at least. Today my Twitter feed alternates between horror over Trump and horror over Travis Kalanick.
But 2017 is also an inspiring time to be a woman. The extreme hypermasculinity of the bros and the reality of a man who bragged about sexual assault being in the White House, the ungodly details of what happens at companies like Uber, has united women in a way I’ve never seen before.”
As entrepreneur Sarah Lacy makes clear in this cogent, persuasive analysis and clarion cry, the strongest, most lucrative, and most ambitious time of a woman’s career may easily be after she sees a plus sign on a pregnancy test.
