Ellen Pao, the former junior partner at Kleiner Perkins Claufield & Byers, is leading an anti-discrimination crusade in Silicon Valley. First, I applaud her for bringing up the issue because there is a gender gap in Tech. However, not many are sure if Pao’s way of addressing is the best way. Many managers and employees know that there are issues. It is not that they need specific advice but a cultural change. This culture change should probably start at early ages to be more effective and it will take time. Just imposing new standards and demanding change will not be so effective.

Another issue is that men and women differ in abilities, preferences, and tastes. Econtalk has great episode discussing how the gender gap may be a result of men and female optimizing differently, given their abilities, preferences, and tastes. For instance, demanding physical labor may be more suited for man given their physical strength and less appealing to a woman. Hence, we would observe more men in such area with higher wages. Hence, we cannot just generalize any gender gap as discrimination. It is good that we have the gender gap dialogue going but we should not simplify it and think one movement or organization will bring drastic change. We need a strong consensus ground up and further develop our understanding of the gender gap.