In many ways, startup culture has become synonymous with the can-do attitude of a generation. In Silicon Valley, we’re told over and over again, merit trumps all. The well-documented and much-maligned gender (not to mention race and class) gap among those at the top of the Valley’s most lucrative companies is a problem of numbers: not enough women studying math, killing it at coding, or coming up with the next Big Idea. Excuses like this were repeated like a mantra during the Adria Richards scandal for example, which is the last time I remember sexism in tech being in this bright of a spotlight.

You’ll remember Richards as the woman who was fired and sent death and rape threats for calling ...