Akansha*, a freelance web developer confessed that while working in a male-dominated industry like Web3, it is commonplace to be preyed upon by men. A week ago, a colleague’s post about an incident of sexual Harassment had gone viral. “I was there with her that night. We’ve all been at the receiving end of sexually coloured remarks and messages,” Akansha added.
Akansha’s colleague Ankita had taken to X a few days after her resignation, detailing a manager’s wrongful conduct during an event, to which newcomers and industry stalwarts were invited, to showcase recent innovations within the domains of Emerging Tech and Web3.
Akansha had joined her company in March last year. “I did not have any leverage like my male counterparts with tons of work experience,” she said. The way that Akansha was directed to build work knowledge was by attending post-work conferences. However, in one such event, her experience of the workplace shifted.
The nature of the workplace being otherwise completely remote, it’s in these conferences that coworkers are able to meet one another. “Prior to the event, I received a message from my senior asking whether I would attend the meet. When I agreed, he offered to come pick me up.” Given that Akansha was already on her way, she refused.
Once at the event, Akansha began speaking to fellow invitees. That’s when her phone beeped to another message. “You look very attractive,” a message from the senior read. The rest of the night she was approached by the senior on multiple occasions, with him either touching her inappropriately during pictures or demanding her Instagram handle so he could “tag” her in said pictures. The messaging continued for weeks until Akansha confronted the man, to which the man replied “Learn to take compliments”.
Unfortunately, this is not a rare sight for Women in tech. Decode spoke to 9 women employees of the Web3 industry, who recalled incidents of harassment and workplace misconduct that they’ve experienced. These women talk about what challenges they face as a minority gender within the space and how corporate domineering is commonplace; eroding their confidence and in some instances, their ability to follow through with formal complaints.
What is Web3?
Web3 is a decentralised web created as the next generation of the Internet. Through blockchain technology, Web3 aims to create a more open and transparent web.
Packy McCormick, an investor from Duke University, who first popularised a definition of Web3 explains it as “builders and users owning an internet that can be orchestrated by tokens.” First came Web1, between roughly 1990-2005, in which open protocols were decentralized and community-governed. Web2 came between 2005-2020 in which centralized services were run by corporations. This guaranteed large chunks of revenue to a handful of companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook.
When these tech giants began being accused of selling user’s data or falling prey to security breaches, these concerns gave rise to Web 3.0 to give users back control of their data on the internet. In Web3, users and builders can own parts of the internet by owning NFTs or fungibles. A user can either buy or earn fungible and non-fungible tokens.
“Web3 is not crypto,” Nasscom Insights Director, Namita Jain, clarified. Both are based on distributed ledger technology (DLT), in common parlance, blockchain. Today, the majority of data contributed by individual users online, like you and I, are not really owned by us. Companies offering these tech platforms own our data – X, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. In some regions, data laws protect privacy and shareability rights, such as the UK having GDPR or India now with its Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA 2023). However, data privacy continues to be a concern in many global regions.
Jain explained that from 2008 onwards when cryptocurrency began seeing massive investments, regulators became watchful of the potential and growing fraudulent money transactions. "What we witnessed was that many economies banned cryptocurrencies and crypto-trading. India, for instance, started with a ban and has finally started taxing dealings in virtual digital assets (VDAs)."
Despite volatility and corporate cases in crypto, the utility of blockchain as an underlying mechanism for Web3 has continued to grow. “However, globally, Web3 adoption is happening at a varying pace. In India, we are seeing more traction for Web 2.5, an intermediate stage where some control, identity declaration, and permission access are being applied, in order to sandbox the real workings of Web3 and make necessary technological, regulatory, and societal shifts before fully adopting Web3," Jain added.
Ahmed Elnoshokaty, Assistant Professor of Information Decision Sciences at California State University San Bernardino said, “Web3 is not only accessing the web through our laptop, but through Internet Of Things or IOT through our cars, climate control, home appliances, etc." Professor Elnoshokaty suggests that the well-educated calibre of the Indian IT industry can create opportunities for virtual reality or the metaverse.
Hence, although a NASSCOM report suggests that 11% of global Web3 talent is in India, a big chunk of Web3 talent in India works for these startups that cater to outside markets and not India.
Women in Web3 allege harassment at workplace
Ritu*, a female employee of Pandora's Finance began her journey in Web3 last year. A humanities student initially, Ritu’s work required her to learn about techie elements like blockchain or smart contracts. “During hiring, male applicants are given priority. So that adds pressure to the female’s performance, creating an overwhelming work environment.”
In her year and a half of being in Web3, Ritu noticed only two female employees within her organisation–which is commonplace within the tech industry. “Opportunities for women in Web3 are minimal.” According to Ritu, managers don’t put much trust in women regarding technical work. “There’s a missing link in the treatment of male and female employees.”
Ritu’s last event was four months ago. At the party, a manager of a separate company approached her, which at first seemed friendly. “Beware of simps and suck-ups,” he had warned her. Not understanding the extent of the advance, Ritu continued to interact with people there. “I was openly teased by intoxicated men, who began asking me how many partners I have had and where I find them. I had never met any of them before,” Ritu continued. In the end, as she was about to leave the venue, she alleged being cornered on her way to the washroom by the same manager who offered her a lift. “I felt so uncomfortable that I haven’t been to another event in months.”
Ritu recounted a similar incident from a conference–which happen almost weekly from August onwards—and had to leave within 15 minutes because she felt overwhelmingly unwelcome. “Elites speak to each other and more often than not, women aren’t given a chance to speak,” she said.
Natasha*, a Web3 junior developer admitted to having similar experiences at such Web3 events. A few months ago, at another innovations conference, a colleague from a different company approached Natasha, asking for her number. Natasha shared her number hesitantly, not wanting to cast a bad impression. Thus began a barrage of messages every day, where this person would ask her to meet him after work. “He found my social media and began commenting on my pictures.” When he began calling incessantly, is when Natasha blocked his number. “But a few days later, I began receiving calls from a different number asking to meet,” said Natasha.
Preeti* quit her job as a Web3 content creator after months of struggling with long work hours and impossible deadlines–but the last straw was when a male employee at a competitive firm added her number through a WhatsApp creator’s group and began harassing her on call. “Initially, I thought it would be good to make friends with other company people.” But within a few weeks, the dynamic became uncomfortable. “I would meet him at parties and he would offer to teach me work-related things. But in return, he would expect me to date him,” said Preeti.
Among many things, one common thought process within these women were their collective hesitation to file official complaints. Some feared being ridiculed at work, while others did not feel ready to speak about the incidents at home. Preeti feels responsible for forming a friendship with the man, and Akansha’s managers indirectly threated to terminate her when she brought the issue to their attention.
Plus, alongside sexual harassment, day-to-day sexist insults and intimidation is also common. Garima, a software development engineer, recalled incidents where senior male coworkers passed rude comments and denigrated her for her work. “Once a boss called me a child in front of international founders as a ‘joke’ and then proceeded to equate my lack of knowledge to my gender.” Not wanting to make things worse, Garima requested the employer for a private conversation at another time. “At the meeting, he called me hysterical for asking for the conversation and casually talked about attention seeking being a womanly trait,” concluded Garima.
Female employees also complained about a general lack of support for their work within the space. From being asked personal questions about their love lives to their degrees being openly compared to their fellow employees, sexist jabs within these tech spaces go unchecked. Several others have even taken to social media platforms such as X to detail their challenges faced by women in Web3. In fact, most of these women have a background in Web2 and they complain of similar hostility at work when it comes to startups with male founders.
Anshita, Consumer Evangelist at Lumos, spoke about how her job as a community builder requires her to partake in offline and online industry gatherings and make new connections and collaborations. Albeit glad to be a part of a female-majority company with a woman founder, Anshita brought to light how Web3 events ecosystem is especially discriminatory to female workers. “I have worked under some of the best women leaders out there. So the internal ecosystem is great, but the same can’t be said for the external spaces,” said Anshita.
Anshita noted that Web3 is comprised of nascent developers and young people in general. This leads to hostile work politics that the same young people are not prepared for. “Hence, the parent company needs to have a female representation on the inside, so that employees are able to understand the power dynamics within the industry.”
Once, at an event in Goa, Anshita was at the receiving end of a male employee who berated her for being a young designer. The male was the organiser of the event who had originally let Anshita in and later insulted her for her presence at the event. “The demographic is 20-25 so the right support mechanisms must exist with the parent company, that can rehabilitate young employees facing unhealthy challenges.”
Ankita’s post on X mentioned similar issues within the industry. Now with over 100 shares, she talks about how she received unwanted attention because of having a high count of X followers and how other event attendees would use her ‘celebrity status’ as an excuse to take her pictures and then share online. “I have lost count of how many events I have left just because of how uncomfortable I feel. Took me 8 months to finally go back to another event,” the post read.
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When asked whether there are redressal mechanisms at work, an overwhelming majority of women said they were not aware of any such protocols within the companies. Garima said, “There is no inclusive training and most companies don’t have any formal complaints committee.”
“Even in Web2, prevention of sexual harassment is limited to the HR department and even they are ridden with prejudice,” Anshita added. Plus, a lot of companies in Web3 are small startups, so no such policy exists within them. So any concerns regarding safety issues fall on the managers who are often inept or complacent.
PoSH awareness lacking in remote workplaces
Covid lockdowns transformed working patterns and businesses redefined their work environment to fit ‘remote work’. However, safety within a workplace seems to not have carried over as smoothly. Female employees allege increased cases of online harassment, with fellow employees asking inappropriate questions, and insinuating sexual advances over social media and messages. This begs the question, “Does your home constitute a workplace under the PoSH Act?”
In 2013, the Government of India enacted the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act. The Act is an extension of the Vishaka Guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in 1997. According to the PoSH Act, companies should provide support for all employees experiencing any form of harassment. There must be an Internal Complaints Committee(ICC) comprising of a senior-level woman employee as the presiding officer and a minimum of two employees with expertise or knowledge of women’s rights. The Act also mandates an external member from an NGO or an association dedicated to women’s welfare.
However, female employees allege a systemic lack of PoSH sensitisation and training within remote working structures. Aashna, a freelance crypto-writer recalled, “I have switched 3 workplaces in the past 2 years and only one organisation shared links of e-learning PoSH rules.”
When it comes to workplaces, there is an expectation of offline workplaces. Although Section 2(o)(vi) of the POSH Act clarifies that the term “workplace” includes a home or other remote locations, prevention of harassment remains limited in these virtual spaces. “I was not made aware of any post dedicated to redressal of sexual harassment at any point during my freelance work duration,” Aashna continued. Other female employees echoed that their primary point of contact was managers whom they did not feel comfortable taking complaints to.
Rushila Rebello, Human Rights Lawyer & PoSH Corporate Trainer explained, “We live in a patriarchal society where women are forced to internalise issues. So there’s either under-reporting due to embarrassment or fear of retribution.” Rebello pointed out that although companies are mandated to have ICCs, either these systems are not considered fruitful, or have a history of not taking any concrete action. Whether working remotely or not, managers must set clear expectations about appropriate behaviour while working remotely and reinforce that the organizational policy on POSH remains the same.
So what avenues remain for female employees who are exposed to online harassment with no knowledge of an ICC at their disposal? Rebello recommends first finding out whether there’s an ICC, and in the absence of one, approaching the police or courts with the complaint. “Sexual harassment is seen as a private matter and considered such a taboo, that a woman feels deterred. But PoSH is self-explanatory and any office-related work comes under the purview of the Act.”
Saudamini Sharma, Supreme Court Advocate, pointed out another side to the issue; one that puts the burden of proof on the person who alleges the harassment. “Unless you prove what you're saying is true, if you mention an incident to a group of people, the company can ask you to leave your post.” Saudamini acknowledges that it is then possible to challenge the wrongful termination, but women have to come forward to lodge a complaint first. “The onus of proof lies on whoever is alleging the harassment. Although for private crimes, the way the law has been interpreted is guilty until proven innocent.”
