Yesterday, Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen resigned from his post following sexual harassment complaints and a lawsuit from Whitney Wolf, former marketing vice president.
Wolf claims that she received "sexist, racist, and otherwise inappropriate comments, e-mails, and text messages" from both Mateen and CEO Sean Rad. According to the Wall Street Journal, the suit described the Tinder work environment as a male-dominated, sexist space where it was common and widely accepted for the male executive to use sexist language and racial slurs. Wolf wanted restitution, lost pay, and compensatory damages — apparently, the lawsuit was settled but a lot of information, including the cost to Tinder, was not made public.
A drastic change to management at Tinder was imminent for a while, especially after women began boycotting the app for sexism and Mateen's mistreatment of Wolf and other women.
This incident and others like it give rise to the conversation about women's treatment in tech jobs, especially start-ups, where the majority of people in-charge are men. Dear Kate recently ran an ad campaign for their newest collection of bras and underwear, entirely featuring women in the tech field and allowing for them to break free from the strict and oftentimes problematic standards to which they are held — standards that often follow the white, upper-class definition of professionalism.
Mateen has yet to issue a comment on his resignation.
