Really good article about Ellen Pao's case here
Some of the things she describes, you'd think belonged in the 70s, but no, this is happening in the 21st century. The following conversation happened on the way to a business meeting, among professional colleagues.
the CEO, who’d brought along a few bottles of wine, started bragging about meeting Jenna Jameson, talking about her career as the world’s greatest porn star and how he had taken a photo with her at the Playboy Mansion. He asked if I knew who she was and then proceeded to describe her pay-per-view series (Jenna’s American Sex Star), on which women competed for porn-movie contracts by performing sex acts before a live audience.
“Nope,” I said. “Not a show I’m familiar with.”
Then the CEO switched topics. To sex workers. He asked Ted what kind of “girls” he liked. Ted said that he preferred white girls — Eastern European, to be specific.
Eventually we all moved to the couch for a working session to help the tech CEO; he was trying to recruit a woman to his all-male board. I suggested Marissa Mayer, but the CEO looked at me and dismissively said, “Nah, too controversial.” Then he grinned at Ted and added, “Though I would let her join the board because she’s hot.”
I like the way she positions the outcome of the case as the loss of the first battle in an ongoing war which will have a different outcome. It's a long read, but an interesting one.