Reddit chief engineer Bethanye Blount quits

Does Reddit have a gender discrimination problem that it needs to address?”

That’s the question being posed to Reddit after news that chief engineer Bethanye Blount has quit the company after just two months in the job and just days after CEO Ellen Pao also departed.

Pao had endured months of criticism and many observers had suggested that her gender played a large part in that. Blount’s decision to leave has certainly not helped alleviate those concerns.

Bethanye’s departure had nothing to do with gender, and I was looking forward to working with her,” Steve Huffman, who has returned to the role of CEO following Pao’s departure, told Re/Code.

The company is growing, and we have the opportunity to improve in many areas – including the number of women in leadership positions. I am confident in our ability to recruit women at the executive level, as we have made a point to do so at Hipmunk, where more than half of the executives are women.”

George Pang will assume Blout’s role until a replacement can be hired.

Blount told Re/Code that she left because she did not think she could deliver on promises being made to the community”, adding:

I feel like there are going be some big bumps on the road ahead for Reddit. Along the way, there are some very aggressive implied promises being made to the community – in comments to mods, quotes from board members – and they’re going have some pretty big challenges in meeting those implied promises.”

She also added that, in her opinion, Pao’s exit was an indirect consequence of gender discrimination, although conceded that she wouldn’t say my decision to leave was directly related to my gender”.