When Ariella Steinhorn, 27, left an early-career job after an incident of sexual harassment in 2018, she was hopeful that her next opportunity would lead her to a more inclusive and respectful office culture. A communications specialist, Steinhorn decided to join an engineer-heavy tech company that needed a brand storyteller — and stepped into a small team of mostly men.
“I was still pretty young,” Steinhorn said. “I wasn’t feeling financially stable, so I moved quickly to another small tech company in New York. I sort of jumped from the frying pan to the fire.”
The new job wasn’t what she’d hoped for, Steinhorn said. Instead, she was met with microaggressions from male leadership and co-workers: A male founder of the company was unwilling to meet with her one-on-one, she said, and male co-workers generally ignored her in the office. After a couple of months trying to make things work with the small team, a male colleague warned Steinhorn that she should quit her position because leadership no longer wanted to work with her.
