Warning: this article discusses sexual assault. If this brings up issues for you, support is available at 1800 RESPECT.

The headlines come so often that it can be hard to keep up.

The CEO of Uber stepping down, following months of controversy sparked by a blog post calling out sexual assault. A female engineer at Tesla, accusing the company of “pervasive harassment”. Stories from Apple, Google, and allegations against a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist.

And, most recently, a shocking collection of stories in New York Times from women working in tech - retelling their abuse, survival, and resilience in an industry with an increasingly disturbing reputation.

Days after being named in the New York Times piece for making inappropriate advances to female colleagues, the CEO of Silicon Valley-based 500 Startups resigned from the company.

Dave McClure's resignation came after he wrote an apology on Medium, saying that he "f**ked up", "deserved to be called a creep", and apologised for being a "clueless, selfish, unapologetic and defensive ass."

Ripples from the explosive stories told to the New York Times have now reached all the way to Australia’s own burgeoning start up industry.

Over the weekend, women in the Australian tech industry called on each other to speak up about their experiences, under the hashtag #brolash.

Skip Twitter Tweet FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. I'm calling the recent stories of women speaking out against men of power who abuse it to sexual advantage, the #Brolash. — Atlanta Daniel (@lants) June 30, 2017

Skip Twitter Tweet FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. Among many incidents, one investor told me I owed him a blow job for his help. — Atlanta Daniel (@lants) July 1, 2017

Skip Twitter Tweet FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. I've had a guy send me a series of hand drawn cartoons via Messenger with his pants down — Nicole Williamson (@NicoleWill100) July 1, 2017

Yesterday, hundreds of Australians in the startup community signed a statement on sexual harassment in their industry, calling for a zero-tolerance approach.

"Accounts of predatory behaviour by investors are not hard to find, even if acting on them fairly appears to have been far too hard for many organisations to respond to appropriately in the past," they wrote.

Not any more.

"These disturbing accounts give us an opportunity to take a long hard look at the ecosystem and make it clear we do not condone sexual harassment in the Australian startup community."

For Melbourne-based Ophelie Lechat, working in the tech industry means worrying about harassment in the workplace every single day.

Skip Twitter Tweet FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. Every day I worry about two things: being harassed in my work, and ruining my career by calling out inappropriate behaviour. #Brolash — Ophelie Lechat (@OphelieLechat) July 1, 2017

"I tend to be stand-offish, which isn’t great. I’d like to be able to bring my whole self to work," Ophelie told Hack.

"I have definitely had incidents at tech events that have made me uncomfortable, that have gone beyond what I consider to be professional. Usually it’s things around touching or sexualised language.

"I’m afraid every day that I might be up for a role or project, and they won’t want to [hire me] because of something I’ve said, or I’ve rebuffed their directors once at an event,” Ophelie says.

Why does tech have a problem with harassment?

Ophelie says harassment of women in the workplace is seen in all kinds of industries. “I don’t think it’s unique to tech,” she says, “That being said, tech prides itself on a meritocracy and moving fast, and in some ways we think that the rules don’t apply to us.

“There are basically no unions. There’s very little representation of groups of employees. Most tech companies don’t have an HR department, or if they do it’s seen as kind of a joke.

The motto is ‘move fast and break things’, which I think was the original Facebook mantra.

"This idea that we are innovating too quickly to follow the rules, that’s fine - but we are actually ignoring people’s livelihood and well-being, and that’s where they need to draw the line.

"I love this industry. Working in a space with innovation is so rewarding. But I’m really tired of seeing my female friends just drop out of the industry.”

For Melbourne-based designer and developer Karolina Szczur, stories of abuse in her industry are no longer shocking.

"I honestly wish I was surprised by it, but I’m not," Karolina told Hack.

Karolina, like Ophelie, is hesitant about naming abusers. It comes from a fear we often hear of in this space: the repercussions of speaking out in a competitive, close-knit industry could be huge. Being known for calling out abuse, rather than being known for their work, is also a drawback.

You could argue that, ironically, this allows harassment to fester; meanwhile, abusers get away with it.

"I was definitely subjected to harassment, but I’m not going to go into detail because I’m honestly afraid of repercussions of that person finding out and going after me because it’s a person of high visibility," Karolina says.

"That put me in therapy and made me spend thousands of dollars on therapy and I’m still recovering from it. I don’t think it’s something that you just put in the past and forget about. It keeps coming back.

"Personally, emotionally, mentally it’s taken a huge toll on me."

Meanwhile, the conversation around the issue is growing, and more men in tech are also starting to call out abuse of their female colleagues, Ophelie Lechat says. "But it is frustrating that it takes a guy to have the message taken seriously."

For Karolina, the conversation means more men are putting their hands up to become allies for their female colleagues, but there’s a tendency of not being proactive about it.

Skip Twitter Tweet FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. I appreciate men reaching out and asking how they can be allies but please don’t ask underrepresented groups to do the homework for you. — fantastic ms. (@fox) July 2, 2017

"I’d really appreciate them to take the approach that they take for everything else, and just google it," Karolina says.

"There’s so many resources there. I’m an activist, I’m not an expert, I’m learning as well. I read books, I talk to people, I find resources that will educate me.

"Search for it in your own time rather than asking the group that’s underrepresented [to do it for you]."

For Karolina, who runs inclusive and diverse tech events in an effort to increase visibility of women in the industry, changing the culture will be supported by three major pillars.

Activism, education, and creating a safer platform online and offline [for women to share their stories]."

For the group of Australians who signed the statement calling for a zero-tolerance approach to harassment in the industry, momentum around the topic is reassuring.

"We have been overwhelmed by the number of people and organisations wishing to sign and support this statement.

"We are working on next steps and will be in touch soon."