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"The Internet likes to take matters into its own hands. \nAt least, that's the case when it comes to issues surrounding gender equality. Many people use blog posts, tweets and status updates to highlight instances of discrimination against women, and spread awareness on the serious problem.\nSee also: Women of the World: Dump Kimye, Tackle Climate Change\nOne recent example is the New York Times scandal starring Jill Abramson, the paper's first female executive editor. She was promptly fired in May, after less than three years on the job. Rumors quickly swirled that Abramson had been fired because of complaints about unequal pay \u2014 though, the Times denies that claim.\nTime will tell how the Abramson case plays out, but there have been plenty of instances in which Internet users successfully stepped in to promote gender equality. \nFrom #YesAllWomen to gender stereotypes at Lego, here are five times the Internet promoted gender equality.\n\n\n5 Times the Internet Demanded Gender Equality\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1. The Adria Richards debacle\n\nIt was the tweet heard 'round the tech world. In 2013, developer evangelist Adria Richards attended Pycon, an annual conference for users of open-source programming language Python. \nHowever, while attending a session, Richards noticed that two men behind her were making sexual jokes, riffing off tech terms like \"forking\" and \"dongles.\" Disturbed, Richards tweeted about it. \n\nNot cool. Jokes about forking repo's in a sexual way and \"big\" dongles. Right behind me #pycon pic.twitter.com/Hv1bkeOsYP\n\u2014 Adria Richards (@adriarichards) March 17, 2013\n\nRichards launched a few more tweets and contacted PyCon employees about the mens' conduct. PyCon immediately removed the men from the event. Richards later wrote a lengthy post about the experience on her blog, But You're a Girl, saying it was a typical example of how women are made to feel uncomfortable at tech conferences. \nThe controversy was widely covered by media and the techie blogosphere. One of the men was eventually fired from his job.\nHowever, Richards' small triumph for gender equality came with a consequence. Her own employer, SendGrid, fired her, saying her decision to \"tweet the comments and photographs of the people who made the comments crossed the line.\u201D\n\n\nImage: Flickr, Chuck Olsen\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2. Lego stereotypes little girls\n\nSince 1949, Lego has been producing popular brick toys for children. However, the company caught flak in 2012 for releasing a line geared toward young girls that featured slim figures and pink play sets with pet salons, juice bars and bakeries. \nPeople denounced the line, asking Lego to release something smarter for young girls. A Change.org petition was started. The pressure mounted higher and higher, until the company finally took a positive step forward. \nDr. Ellen Kooijman submitted a project to Lego Ideas, the company's competition proposal site where fans can share ideas for Lego sets, in the hopes they'll actually be produced. She proposed a science-themed set for girls, with an astronomer, paleontologist and chemist. \nMore than 10,000 users voted for Kooijman's project, showcasing the fervent desire for smart, female-themed sets. Lego immediately snatched up the project, announcing in June that it will launch Kooijman's set. \n\n\nVideo: YouTube, LEGO\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3. Twitter hires first female board member\n\nIn 2013, Twitter released its IPO paperwork. While that was news on its own, The New York Times focused on a different element of the story -- the fact that Twitter had no female board members.\nSince 2006, the social network's board has solely comprised white men, and there was only one woman among the company's top officials. It was once again a shining example of the tech world's lack of diversity, especially when it came to including women. \nThe story caused a maelstrom online. Twitter's CEO, Dick Costolo, even got into an tweet-fight with Vivek Wadhwa, the author of an upcoming book on women in tech, who was quoted in the Times piece as saying, \"This is the elite arrogance of the Silicon Valley mafia, the Twitter mafia.\"\n\n@rich1 Vivek Wadhwa is the Carrot Top of academic sources.\n\u2014 dick costolo (@dickc) October 5, 2013\n\nHowever, Twitter heard the grumblings of the Internet. Two months later, it quietly appointed Marjorie M. Scardino, the former chief executive officer of Pearson, as their first female board member.\n\n\nImage:  Wikipedia\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n4. Jenna Talackova's pageant dream\n\nGrowing up, Jenna Talackova always wanted to be a pageant queen. In 2012, she got closer to her dream after entering the Miss Universe Canada pageant. However, she was disqualified from the competition because she is transgender. \nThe 23-year-old had undergone sex reassignment surgery at 19, and officials said she \"did not meet the requirements\" of the pageant rules. \nThe disqualification sparked up heated debate online, with tweets pouring in about whether or not Talackova could enter. A Change.org petition was started to get her reinstated, gathering more than 21,800 signatures.\nEventually, the pressure became so great that Talackova was reinstated, and Donald Trump, who oversees the Miss Universe pageant, announced that the ban on trans women competing in the pageant would be lifted. \n\n\nImage: Flickr, Annie Jackson\n\n\n\n\n\n\n@gildedspine @Ceilidhann Sounds like something that needs to get shared right now. #YesAllWomen\u2014 annie cardi (@anniecardi) May 24, 2014\n\n\n\n\n5. #YesAllWomen\n\nIn May, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger went on a killing spree at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He killed six people, injured 13 others and immediately committed suicide. \nThe data he left behind (video blogs, Internet comments, a manifesto) revealed him to be a misogynist who was inspired to kill women because they weren't sexually interested in him. \nHis extreme case of male sexual entitlement alarmed women everywhere. Thus, the hashtag campaign #YesAllWomen arose, with women using it on social media to share their stories and experiences with harassment from men.\nIt was a powerful way of sharing the female experience, and how all women have had to deal with male entitlement. The hashtag spread around the world, and has since been tweeted more than 1.2 million times. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/06/22/internet-gender-equality/>