Over spring break, my friends and I (personal shoutout to Sofie, Delia, and Serena) became absolutely infatuated with the new Hulu series, “The Drop Out.” The series follows Elizabeth Holmes, former CEO and founder of Theranos, on her fraudulent journey to false success. Holmes is played by Amanda Seyfried who does an amazing job at capturing her personality and character—I mean, is there anything Amanda Seyfried can’t do? While watching the show, I couldn’t help but to be angry with the way Holmes is representing female CEOs. For this column, I thought I’d reflect on who Elizabeth Holmes is, what she did wrong, and how she has discredited women as a whole.
Holmes was born in 1984 in Washington, D.C. Being extremely intelligent, she attended Stanford University before dropping out to pursue her entrepreneurship ideas. Holmes had the idea to create a more efficient medical device for blood testing, so she dropped out of college her sophomore year and created her own startup company. As explained in “Elizabeth Holmes” by The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, “Traditional blood testing relied on drawing 5–10 ml (0.17–0.34 fluid ounces) of blood through a large needle to fill one tube for each test requested by a physician. That process was often painful for patients and costly for insurance carriers… Theranos’s process, on the other hand, asserted that a far smaller sample (a few drops taken from a pinprick of a finger) was sufficient to provide the raw material for the company’s diagnostic tests, and the procedure was shown to be far less painful and costly…” This idea was at the center of Theranos, and while it sounds good in theory, it didn’t necessarily work. After successfully tricking many corporations such as Walgreens, Holmes’ secret was leaked and everyone realized her company was a complete fraud. She was found guilty on four of 11 charges she was faced with.
The reason why this scandal is so detrimental is because Holmes was directly affecting innocent people. The series does a great job at portraying how Theranos hurt the average person, like you and me. As stated by John Carreyrou in an interview with Purude’s University’s newspaper The Exponent, “This company was not only committing fraud, but also putting patients in jeopardy with its unreliable blood tests. It’s not just a business fraud. It’s also a fraud perpetrated on the public that could hurt real people.”
Although Holmes created a completely false company, she made a large name for herself. In 2015, Forbes named Holmes the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in America. But, at what cost? Holmes put many peoples’ lives at risk by giving them false blood test results, as well as discrediting women in business. This is certainly a large topic to discuss, but through my research I discovered a few facts about Holmes’ case that made me extremely angry. As stated by “Elizabeth Holmes’ Conviction Is Actually a Win for Women” by Lara Stemple, “The defense team has argued that Balwani’s (former partner) alleged abuse impeded Holmes’ ability to think clearly during the period in which she committed fraud. Certainly intimate partner violence can lead a victim to lash out against an abuser or to engage in substance abuse or other destructive behavior. But the idea that domestic violence causes victims to defraud investors, and actively work to cover it up, is a bridge too far. And it undermines the credibility of all women, and survivors of sexual assualt, in business.” I completely stand behind this statement. The defense calling upon this reasoning is inappropriate and disgraceful to women who have faced similar problems.
So, while some people are referring to Elizabeth Holmes as a “girlboss,” I completely disagree. In the wise words of Phyllis Gardner from the series, “There’s only one thing you need to know about Elizabeth Holmes. She’s a fraud, Richard. She’s always been a fraud.”
Girl Talk is an Opinion column written by a current female student to discuss issues surrounding women, whether it be feminism, current events, personal experiences at Stevens or in life, and more.
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