What happened to Fowler? Biography
Susan Fowler is an author and former software engineer from the United States well-known for having influenced institutional changes in Uber’s and Silicon Valley employers’ responses to sexual harassment. Based on her experience, her business celebrity led to book and Hollywood picture deals.
How old is Fowler? Age
Born Susan Joy Fowler Rigetti, the writer is 33 years old as of April 17, 2024. She was born in 1991 on a farm in Yarnell, Arizona.
Fowler Family
Being the second of seven children, Rigetti grew up in the small Arizonan town of Yarnell. Her mother educated their kids, and her father worked as a pay phone salesman and evangelical preacher for the Assemblies of God. Rigetti remembered that she had little guidance in her schooling and would frequently go to the library to attempt to educate herself on various subjects. She was influenced by the Stoics and Plutarch’s Lives, who urged her to concentrate on the aspects of her life that she could manage. In order to provide for her family, she worked as a nanny and steady hand.
Susan Fowler Education
Without completing high school, Rigetti readied herself for college entrance examinations and was granted a full scholarship to Arizona State University, her intended field of study being astronomy. She transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where Rigetti encountered similar resistance until she made an appeal to the university president, but her lack of high school prerequisites precluded her from studying math and physics.
She was employed by Penn as a research assistant in physics, but she was fired after making friends with Tim, a fellow student. Her master’s degree was also revoked by the university. She thought about suing, but ultimately made the decision to go on. Later on, this encounter aided Rigetti in his decision to expose Uber. She obtained a physics degree upon graduation.
Susan Fowler Husband
In 2017, Susan wed Chad Rigetti, the man behind Rigetti Computing.
How much is Travis Uber worth?
Travis has an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion.
Uber
In November 2015, Rigetti started working for Uber as a site reliability engineer. Rigetti authored a 3,000-word blog article about sexual harassment at Uber in February 2017. In her piece, Rigetti described Uber’s toxic work environment for female employees. She related how, because of his productivity, the company’s human resources department declined to discipline her former manager for approaching her in a sexual manner. On Twitter, the story was shared 22,000 times. External investigations supported her story and resulted in several terminations. Uber CEO and founder Travis Kalanick was finally forced to resign due to the consequences, which also resulted in a reaction against sexual harassment in Silicon Valley and the expulsion of tech investors Justin Caldbeck and Dave McClure.
Because of her part in transforming Uber, Rigetti became well-known in the corporate world. She continues to advocate for legislation and workplace protections for women, and she has gotten offers for books and Hollywood films. She filed a petition with the US Supreme Court in August 2017 asking them to take her experience into account when deciding whether or not employment contracts allow for the forfeiture of rights to collective litigation. She was listed as one of the top business and cultural leaders in Vanity Fair’s 2017 list.
Time magazine’s 2017 Person of the Year issue included Rigetti as one of five women who represented “The Silence Breakers” by coming forward with her story about being sexually harassed at Uber. The British business daily Financial Times has honored her Financial Times Person of the Year.
Fowler Career
She was employed by Penn as a research assistant in physics, but she was fired after making friends with Tim, a fellow student. Rigetti attempted to get treatment when Tim became suicidal, but the university tried to remove her from their combined studies and placed the blame on her. Her master’s degree was also revoked by the university. She thought about suing, but ultimately made the decision to go on. Later on, this encounter aided Rigetti in his decision to expose Uber. She obtained a physics degree upon graduation.
Early in 2015, while working as a platform engineer for the financial technology company Plaid, Rigetti discovered that her male coworkers were earning $50,000 more than she was. After joining PubNub as a DevOps engineer later in 2015, she came to believe that her employer “truly, deeply, passionately hated women” based on statements made by the employee.
In 2017, Rigetti became the chief editor of Increment, a new quarterly newspaper, after joining Stripe, a firm that processes payments. She also published a book on microservices and founded a scientific book club. 2018 saw Rigetti join The New York Times as an opinion editor where she wrote tech-related op-eds. From 2023 to 2024, Rigetti oversaw the editing of Slate’s “Future Tense” column.