Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley

by Emily Chang

As much as Butterfield is proud of the company’s diversity efforts, he’s also nervous about being held up as an example. “I worry about giving the impression that there’s a magic formula and we discovered it,” Butterfield told me. “I know from the inside that we have not figured everything out, that there’s going to be kind of a constant improvement.” A few months after leaving Slack, Baker told me the company still struggles with the stereotypes and misogyny that infect every tech workplace. “They definitely have challenges; there is definitely a James Damore at Slack,” Baker says, referring to the ex–Google engineer who said there were fewer women than men in tech and leadership due to biological differences.