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IBM Pulls the Plug on #HackAHairDryer Campaign After Sexism Complaints

IBM Corp. Exteriors Ahead Of Earnings Figures
Craig Warga—Bloomberg/Getty Images The International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) logo is displayed in front of the company's offices in New York, U.S., on Oct. 14, 2013

IBM introduced the promotion a couple of months ago

IBM’s promotional campaign to attract more women to science and technology by encouraging them to “hack a hair dryer” got some serious blowback on the internet.

The company on Monday pulled the plug on its #HackAHairDryer initiative after a multitude of women complained that it fed off sexist stereotypes. They said they’d rather be working on more important things like building robots.

IBM introduced the campaign a couple of months ago, saying: “Girls don’t like science? Women can’t code? Only men wear lab coats? It’s hair-raising misperceptions like these that keep bright minds out of research labs, scrum…

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