We previously reported on Silicon Valley's diversity problem and how it's actually getting worse with time, not better. And those who somehow manage to squeeze their way into the majority white bubble have to struggle with an array of microaggressions.

The New Yorker recently published a piece entitled, "The Tech Industry's Gender-Discrimination Problem," which detailed the many ways in which women have been discriminated against or otherwise degraded.

One particular reported incident stood out. Erica Joy Baker, now a senior engineer at Patreon, worked as an engineer providing tech support to top executives at Google from 2006 to 2015. She alleged that most opportunities went to white guys within the company.

“Throughout my career at Google, there was the standard thing: ‘I know you want to work on this thing, but we’re going to let a white dude work on it. Sorry, we’re going to let a white dude go ahead of you,’” said Baker. “That was really frustrating.”

But, it was the story of how Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt mistook her for an administrative assistant that really took the cake!

Baker told the story of how her colleague Frank was out of office and Schmidt was looking for him.

“He’s not here, is there something I can help you with?" she recalled asking Schmidt. Schmidt then described a technical issue to her that she was actually more qualified to help him out with.

“I said, ‘Oh, I can take care of that for you.’ And he said, ‘Oh, you’re not his assistant?’ ” Baker said.

Photo: GIPHY

Baker even said that Schmidt then suggested that she put a sign on her door noting her role, even though other offices didn't incorporate this practice.

She also claimed that she was routinely mistaken for the only other black woman with a technical job on her team as well. “We used to jokingly call ourselves the Twins, even though we don’t look anything alike,” she quipped.

Google did not provide comment on the alleged incident.

Erica Joy Baker

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week