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The former Uber software engineer and sexual harassment whistleblower became a symbol of everything that is wrong with Silicon Valley — and emboldened a movement that could permanently improve the way women are treated at work
优步(Uber)的前软件工程师和性骚扰揭发者成了硅谷一切错误的象征——并激发了一场可能永久地改善女性在工作中待遇的运动。
When Susan Fowler joined Uber in late 2015, the company looked like an unstoppable juggernaut. It was expanding rapidly around the world and becoming the most valuable start-up of all time. For software engineers like Ms Fowler, there was exciting work to be done on the app that was changing transportation. Employees at San Francisco’s hottest company proudly wore their Uber sweatshirts around town.
苏珊?福勒(Susan Fowler)在2015年底加入优步，那时优步的发展似乎势不可挡。它迅速在全球扩张并成为有史以来最有价值的初创企业。对于像福勒这样的软件工程师来说，为这款正在改变人们出行方式的应用工作大有可为。在旧金山最炙手可热的企业工作，员工们很自豪地在街上穿着印有优步logo的运动衫。
But two years later, those sweatshirts are no longer visible and Uber is in crisis. Beset by one major setback after another, the company has become a symbol of everything that is wrong with the hard-driving tech world. In large part, that shift is due to Ms Fowler.
但两年过后，街上再看不见那些运动衫，优步也陷入了危机。一系列重挫接踵而至，优步已经成为这个锐意进取的技术王国一切错误的象征。在很大程度上，这一转变归因于福勒。
In February she published a blog about her time at Uber that lifted the lid on a company that was out of control. Ms Fowler described the sexual harassment she experienced, including her boss propositioning her for sex on the first day she joined his team. The human resources department turned a blind eye to her complaints, saying he was a “high performer”. When she wrote about this and other incidents, her post quickly went viral. Ms Fowler had pulled on a thread that would lead to a great unravelling.
今年2月，福勒发表了一篇博客文章，讲述了她在优步的工作经历，揭露了一家失控的公司。福勒描述了她所经历的性骚扰，包括她的上司在她加入其团队的第一天就向她提出露骨的性暗示。人力资源部门对她的投诉视而不见，称她的上司“业务水平高”。当福勒将这件事和其他事件写出来后，她的博文很快就火了。福勒拉动了一根引线，一场巨大的崩溃即将发生。
In the process, the 26-year-old from rural Arizona who had to teach herself at the local library to get into university, found herself at the centre of three of the most important trends of the year. Her description of the reality of working at Uber generated a crisis that has raised questions about the very viability of the company. They also formed an early part of the growing backlash against the power and influence of the Big Tech companies.
今年26岁的福勒来自亚利桑那州乡下，她曾不得不在当地图书馆自学考入大学，随着这一事件的发酵，福勒发现自己置身于今年最重要的三大潮流的中心。她对自己在优步工作经历的描述导致了一场危机，这场危机引发了人们关于优步能否存活下去的疑问。这些疑问还使人们对科技巨头权力与影响日益增长的反感情绪初具规模。
Most of all, her intervention was one of the most important testimonies in what — as the year comes to a close — has become an avalanche of allegations about sexual harassment and assault that have brought down some of the most important men in media, entertainment and business, and which hold the potential to permanently improve the way women are treated at work.
最重要的是，随着2017年接近尾声，有关性骚扰及侵犯的指控呈雪崩之势，而福勒的发声成为其中最重要的证词之一，这些指控已将媒体、娱乐和商业领域中一些大人物拉下马，并有可能永久地改善女性在工作中的待遇。
“Women have been speaking up for many, many years, but were very rarely believed, and there were almost never any real consequences for offenders,” Ms Fowler told the FT. “This year, that completely changed.”
“许多年来，女性一直在大声疾呼，但很少有人相信她们说的，而冒犯者却几乎从未承担过任何实质性的后果，”福勒告诉英国《金融时报》。“今年，情况完全不同了。”
Inside of Uber, her story immediately struck a nerve. The account was so damning because it detailed the complicity of Uber’s HR department and top executives who protected the harasser. A few days after the post came out, employees wept at the company-wide meeting that was held to discuss it. Uber’s board launched several investigations and adopted far-reaching corporate governance reforms. The company set up a hotline for harassment complaints, drawing tips that resulted in more than 20 employees being fired.
在优步内部，福勒的故事立即引起触动。她的记述是那么确凿，因为其中仔细说明了优步的人力资源部门与那些保护骚扰者的顶级高管们如何串通一气。在福勒发出博文的几天后，在优步举办的针对这一事件的讨论会上，有员工哭了。优步的董事会发起了几项调查，并采取了影响深远的公司治理改革。公司设立了一个骚扰投诉热线，20多名员工因受到投诉而被解雇。
Outside of Uber, the reaction was just as dramatic. Investors started to question whether Travis Kalanick, the controversial chief executive (who used to refer to the company as “Boob-er” because it helped him meet women) had created a company whose culture had become poisonous. Low morale inside Uber contributed to a series of damaging leaks, including revelations about the mishandling of a rape victim’s medical records and the existence of Greyball, a technology used to mislead regulators. Mr Kalanick vowed to change, but by June investors demanded that he step down.
在优步之外，反应也同样激烈。投资者开始质疑优步备受争议的时任首席执行官特拉维斯?卡兰尼克(Travis Kalanick)创立的这家公司的文化是否已经败坏，卡兰尼克曾将优步称为“妞布”(Boob-er)，因为优步有助他结交女性。优步内部士气低落导致该公司出现了一系列打击性爆料，包括被爆出对强奸受害者医疗记录处理不当，以及使用一种叫做“灰球”(Greyball)的技术误导监管者。卡兰尼克立誓要做出改变，但今年6月投资者要求他辞职。
“Susan Fowler’s letter was the tipping point for us,” says one Uber investor, Freada Kapor Klein, a partner at Kapor Capital. “We had been trying to get the company to address this behind the scenes. But with Susan’s blog post, it was — that is enough, it has so crossed the line, it is time for drastic action.”
“对于我们来说，苏珊?福勒的信是一个转折点，”优步投资者、卡普尔资本(Kapor Capital)合伙人芙瑞达?卡普尔?克莱因(Freada Kapor Klein)说。“我们曾试图让这家公司在幕后解决这个问题。但苏珊的博文一发布，我们的反应是，够了，这过线了，是时候下猛药了。”
Uber could not have found a more unlikely nemesis than the petite Ms Fowler. She grew up in what she describes as poverty as one of seven children in a small rural Arizona town with just 600 people. Her father was a preacher, prison chaplain and at one stage a high school teacher.Ms Fowler never graduated high school, instead working as a babysitter and ranch hand, and teaching herself in the local library. Lacking a formal education but determined to go to university, she submitted a list of books she had read as part of her college application.
优步不可能找到比柔弱的福勒更不像复仇者的人。据她描述，她在一个只有600人的亚利桑那州农村小镇长大，家里很穷，一共有七个孩子。她父亲是一位牧师，也做监狱牧师，还当过一段时间的高中老师。福勒高中没毕业，而是去做保姆还有在牧场上帮工，并在当地的图书馆自学。福勒没有正规的教育背景，但下定决心要上大学，她在申请大学时，还曾附上一张她读过的书单。
After winning a place at Arizona State University to study philosophy, she then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, earning a degree in physics. In her final year at Penn, she wrote a blog titled “If Susan can learn physics, so can you,” explaining how she caught up despite having no secondary maths education. By the time she reached Uber at age 24, she was a physicist and computer scientist, and wrote her first book about software architecture while working at the company.
她成功进入亚利桑那州立大学(Arizona State University)学习哲学，之后又转到宾夕法尼亚大学(University of Pennsylvania)拿到了物理学学位。在宾夕法尼亚大学就读的最后一年，她写了一篇题为《如果苏珊可以学习物理，那么你也可以》(If Susan can learn physics, so can you)的博文，解释她是如何在甚至不具备中学数学基础的情况下学完了物理专业。到她24岁进入优步时，她已经精通物理学和计算机科学，并且在优步工作期间写了她关于软件架构的第一本书。
