Susan Fowler’s viral blog post, “Reflecting on One Very, Very Strange Year at Uber”, will serve as the inspiration for a new film, Variety reports. The post detailed sexual harassment and a tense work environment at Uber. In it, she claimed that her manager had sent her sexually explicit messages at work, but when she had reported him, barely action was taken by HR and her request to transfer teams was denied. Fowler wrote that this environment and culture led to many women leaving the company.
“When I joined Uber, the organisation I was part of was over 25 per cent women. By the time I was trying to transfer to another eng organisation, this number had dropped down to less than 6 per cent. Women were transferring out of the organisation, and those who couldn't transfer were quitting or preparing to quit. There were two major reasons for this: there was the organisational chaos, and there was also the sexism within the organisation” she wrote. Multiple women backed up Fowler, and the ensuing investigation led to 20 firings and more than 200 reports of misconduct.
Fowler will be teaming up with Good Universe, who have hired Hidden Figures screenwriter Allison Schroeder. Kristin Burr will produce the as-yet-unnamed project. News of the adaptation is part of a bigger story; this year, especially after the Weinstein allegations, reports of assault and harassment in the film industry, media, and Silicon Valley are finally coming to the surface.
