Kara Swisher Technology journalist who has covered the internet business since 1994.

“It's not a meritocracy, it's a mirrorcy. And they help each other, and they can't believe you think they are sexist.”

Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway) · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · November 2026

Context

An audience member asked Kara Swisher what advice she has for young women in tech. Swisher says sexism in Silicon Valley has gotten worse, and this is her verdict on how the men who run it see themselves.

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Transcript

Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway) Around 1:16:48 into the episode

Kara Swisher

…were getting started as a reporter. And so, Scott, I do love you, but this is for Kara. So, sexism obviously is still alive and well in tech, and it was even more so that way when I started my career. And my question for you is: what advice would you give to the young women who, like my daughter,

Amy Klobuchar

who just turned 18, are trying to make it in a world where sexism is still so alive and well? Like, how did you do that with all of those rooms, with all of those men who thought you were just little, cute characters?

Kara Swisher

Nobody thought I was little and cute. Well, okay. You know, I always used to say, I'm always at a sausage party, and then I proceeded to have three sons. So I have a daughter also. But, you know, it's actually worse than it was. There were many more women in higher positions of power, like Susan Wojewski. Even for all up or down, Cheryl Sandberg was a high-ranking Meg Whitman. There were lots and lots of women in relatively high positions. Now, if you go to look at one of those Trump dinners, it's all the dudes and their girlfriends, essentially. And it's really depressing. And it's a different kind of sexism that is harder to more easily combat because they feel that they all get ahead because of their meritocracy. And the thing I said about them was: I came to the conclusion pretty quickly is it's not a meritocracy, it's a mirrorcy. And they help each other, and they don't think, they can't believe…

Scott Galloway

Well, you know more about biotech,

Kara Swisher

of course, biotech and medicine. Arma,

Scott Galloway

that's not so. You know more about

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

More from Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway)

“I speak at journalism schools and the idea that they're still teaching television is insane to me. You look at news on TV and the median age is somewhere between 67 and 70. And people under 30 don't have cable. And so there are no new people coming in and you know how the story ends, right?” — Harvey Levin, Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway)

“The truth is that this is the first time regular Americans ever wielded leverage over Silicon Valley. For decades, they've been powerless, powerless to monopolization, regulatory capture, and unprecedented societal control. Now Silicon Valley needs the American people's permission for something, not just something, but the very thing they bet the farm on. And the American people's answer is a simple no.” — Kara Swisher, Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway)