Professor Richard Thompson Ford weighs in on the measures Equal Employment Opportunity Commission could take in regards to discimination at techonlogy companies against women. 

Reed Smith LLP partner Kevin D. Whittaker said he’s seen the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission take a more proactive approach investigating discrimination at technology companies.

Women are giving Noreen Farrell, executive director of San Francisco-based legal nonprofit Equal Rights Advocates, an earful about their treatment in the technology sector. More women are calling the agency's legal hotline, and at events where Farrell speaks about equal pay in Silicon Valley, “women sidle up to me on the side and tell me things that are going on with them in the industry, and it is pretty shocking,” she said.

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The commission would have a hard time investigating charges that a company wasn't hiring qualified women, minorities or older workers, but proving pay inequality might be easier, said Richard T. Ford, a professor specializing in civil rights and antidiscrimination law at Stanford Law School.

While it's hard to know how widespread such problems are, Ford said the anecdotes tell a larger story behind the low percentages of women, minorities, and older workers at leading technology companies.

“We may be limited to these specific, individual claims, but those claims could give you some idea of the kinds of practices and aspects of workplace culture that are probably responsible for some of the statistics we're seeing,” he said.