Uber—Susan Fowler exposed systemic sexual harassment at Uber, triggering CEO resignation and industry-wide reforms
On February 19, 2017, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published a blog post detailing systemic sexual harassment and HR failures at Uber. She described how her manager propositioned her on her first day and HR dismissed complaints. The revelations triggered an internal investigation by former AG Eric Holder, led to CEO Travis Kalanick's resignation in June 2017, and prompted Microsoft, Google, and Facebook to end forced arbitration for sexual harassment claims.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Governance | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| DEI Programs | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Worker Rights | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.393 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.59)× agency (negligent ×0.5)
Evidence (1 signal)
Susan Fowler published blog post exposing systemic sexual harassment at Uber ignored by HR and management
On February 19, 2017, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published a detailed blog post describing systemic sexual harassment at Uber. Fowler recounted being propositioned by her manager on her first day on the team, and when she reported it to HR, was told the manager was a 'high performer' and it was his 'first offense.' She later learned other women had reported the same manager. Fowler documented a culture where HR systematically protected harassers and retaliated against women who reported them. The blog post went viral and triggered an internal investigation by former AG Eric Holder.